Once More, with Feeling
by dripley11
Summary: The Demon Emperor had succeeded. The world was destroyed, and in the process, saved. However, when he awakens in the World of C, God offers him a deal: Gain a new power and return back to when everything began, back to Zero's birth. They say the smallest of changes to the past can drastically affect fate. Armed with his knowledge of the future, Lelouch sets out to start again.
1. Prologue: God has Other Plans

Prologue: "God Has Other Plans"

Lelouch felt the cold steel of his own blade vacate his body.

He staggered forward to the edge of the platform that his throne sat and slid down the dais, his blood leaving a streak on the picture of the Britannian flag.

Lelouch was unable to hear his younger sister's cries and tears as he allowed Nunnally to "see" everything that he'd done for her.

He had succeeded. He'd destroyed the world and created it anew, thus breaking the never-ending cycle of hatred.

The world's savior and destroyer felt his chest still as he courageously embraced his long-awaited death.

"Is this how you truly want it to end, Lelouch?"

Lelouch opened his eyes and recognized where he was immediately. "I'm in the Word of C again?" He wasn't surprised that he had become absorbed by the collective unconsciousness, but why was he able to retain his own? _Why do I know who I am,_ he thought as he gazed around.

Lelouch realized that he was standing on the platform where he'd first confronted his father. The structure his father had constructed to destroy the being known as God. The structure reminded him of the buildings that he'd seen in Greece. It looked like a structure that had been designed based off of the design of the Parthenon.

"The Sword of Akasha," Lelouch breathed.

He then looked around and saw a dark figure walking towards him. Because of the figure's position with the bright, sun-like light source behind it, Lelouch was unable to make out any distinguishing characteristics. The only thing he could tell was that this figure was large.

"I asked if you truly desired everything to come to an end the way that you and your friend had orchestrated." The figure spoke with a very deep, powerful, commanding, and all-too-familiar voice the Lelouch.

His eyes both opened wide in shock at the revelation of whom it was that was slowly approaching him. "Impossible!" Lelouch shrieked. "I saw you disappear before my very eyes! You don't exist!"

"You aren't wrong, Lelouch Vi Britannia." The figure strode forward onto the platform of the Sword of Akasha and its features were revealed before the now dead Demon Emperor. "I no longer exist," Charles Zi Britannia said to his prodigal son.

"Then how are you speaking to me?" Lelouch demanded of his father's phantom, himself panicking at the sight.

The phantom of the Ninety-Eighth Emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire smiled. "I am merely the form chosen to speak with you."

Lelouch couldn't help but feel puzzled at the phantom's words. "What do you mean by 'form chosen?' Are you not Charles Zi Britannia?"

"I am not Charles Zi Britannia," the figure denied while using Charles' booming voice. "I am the being referred to by your father, uncle, and mother as God! I am what your father attempted to murder with this weapon that he and his brother designed." The image of Charles' arms spread out wide.

Lelouch was able to piece together what that statement meant. "So God has seen fit to grace me with his presence, huh?"

Not at all," God smirked. "I am here before you to offer you a choice. One that I think that you will like.

Lelouch's hand rested on his chin as he sat in the chair that appeared behind him suddenly. "And what would this choice be, God?" Lelouch asked. "But before you tell me that, would you mind informing me as to why you came before me in the visage of Charles Zi Britannia?"

"I came to you while assuming this guise because it is one that you are familiar with," God answered. "I am able to assume the form of any being which has been absorbed by the collective unconscious. I could become the young woman that your fake-brother killed for remembering that you were Zero, if you would like."

"Don't you dare!" Lelouch screamed at the being before him. "Seeing her would only remind me of those final moments again," Lelouch said as he forced himself from recalling how helpless he felt as Shirley died in his arms.

"Which is why I chose to appear before you in the form of your father, Charles Zi Britannia," God replied.

"Then I will thank you for your courtesy and tact that you've shown in carefully choosing your guise," Lelouch said to the form before him. "It would appear that you aren't completely apathetic after all."

The visage of Lelouch's father chuckled before he spoke. "That is the first time that any creature has ever thanked me for anything. Most of those that I watch over merely curse me.

Lelouch smiled as he said, "Apparently I always deal with people who have never received any thanks."

"That you do." Another familiar voice spoke from behind the raven-haired youth. A voice that he was certain that he'd never hear again.

Lelouch quickly stood from his seat and turned around. He saw before him the eternally young, green-haired woman, C.C. had appeared.

"C.C." Lelouch whispered as he witnessed the beautiful woman appear before him. "Why are you here as well?" he asked her after he'd regained himself from seeing someone he thought he'd never see again.

C.C. kept her apathetic tone as she calmly answered his question. "Apparently you've gone and forgotten, so I'll tell you once more. I am a perpetual existence in this realm. So I am able to take form here any time that I wish to."

Lelouch nodded as he remembered her words from his first appearance in the World of C.

God then spoke, Charles' voice intimidating to anyone but Lelouch, "C.C. is the reason for me allowing you this choice."

Lelouch turned back and faced God. "What do you mean by that?" he asked the deity. "What did C.C. do which allows me a visit from the entire being of the World of C?"

God then explained his meaning. "At the moment when your life was taken by your friend Suzaku, C.C. was praying. It intrigued me, so I heard her prayer. She was requesting an audience with me."

C.C. nodded. "God answered my prayer and spoke directly with me. I informed God that it owed you a life."

Lelouch was puzzled at the immortal's words. "So, did you ask God to spare my life?"

C.C. shook her head at his question. "No. That wasn't my request. I knew that you wouldn't live on as a human because of your Zero Requiem. You would merely kill yourself in order to preserve the peace that you worked tirelessly to create."

"Did you request for God to grant me a Code implanted in my soul?" Lelouch asked his accomplice in life.

God answered the question directed at C.C. "You already possessed a Code within you."

Lelouch's eyes widened in surprise at what God had revealed to him. "You mean that I'm immortal?"

C.C. nodded once more. "God gave you Charles' Code after you defeated your father. When he told me, I… I…" C.C.'s voice trailed off, unable to finish her sentence.

Lelouch fell back into the chair behind him when he heard that. _What will I do?_ he thought to himself. _The peace I created only holds so long as I stay dead. If anyone recognizes me then Suzaku would be found out in the next moment. Then Nunnally would be called a co-conspirator. The people would believe that I faked my death just to give my sister the throne. Then they would enter a state of hysterical paranoia and revolt. Nunnally would end up being…_ Lelouch vehemently shook his head to prevent that image from forming in his mind.

"C.C. was relieved when she heard that you would be able to come back to her." God broke Lelouch's train of thought and brought him back to the scene playing out before him.

Lelouch saw the woman who wasn't fazed by anything blush after God's statement about her. She lowered her face and her long green hair blocked Lelouch from seeing her face. He smiled when he saw her acting like an embarrassed schoolgirl who'd just had her secret crush find out that she liked him. _So C.C. is still a girl underneath it all, _he thought to himself.

Lelouch then looked back at the deity who appeared in his father's likeness. "So how did C.C. convince you to offer me this 'choice' you mentioned earlier?"

God then answered in Charles Zi Britannia's booming voice, "She merely reminded me that you are the reason that I still exist. That you are the sole existence that has ever lived which I owe a debt of gratitude towards. I believe that the Chinese Triad has a code: 'A Life for a Life.' Because you saved mine, I will offer you one."

"Since I already possess a Code, why are you offering me something else? Isn't that, in a way, a life?"

God's booming laughter echoed in the vast emptiness of the World of C. "It is, but I've come up with an even better idea. One that will repay my debt with plenty of interest."

Lelouch cocked an eyebrow at that. "Just what is this 'choice' then?" He looked a C.C., but she merely shrugged her shoulders to indicate that she didn't know about it either.

"I offer you this choice," God began. "Continue on when your Code activates and live with C.C. alone, unable to ever contact the outside world again." God paused before he finished and offered Lelouch his second choice. "Or start over from the beginning."

Lelouch's face was filled with disbelief at what God had just said to him, and from the look on her face, C.C. couldn't believe it either.

"Please explain what you mean God," Lelouch quickly requested of the deity, eager to hear more.

God then explained what his offer meant. "I possess the ability to turn back the hands of time. I am able to send you back to the moment you first received your Geass. You will retain all memories of the life you just lived, as will your friend C.C. The two of you will have your lives reset to when you met." God then had a wry smile appear on his face. "I will also give you something in exchange for your Code."

Lelouch pondered for a moment in order to search for the meaning behind what God had just said to him. "What do you mean by you will 'give me something?'"

"No more Codes may exist in the time you will return to than already will," God explained. "If you return while a Code is present in your soul, then two souls will occupy the same Code simultaneously. It is impossible for two souls to share the same Code. The time you will return to will have the Code you possess existing in the soul of your uncle, V.V. In exchange for your Code, however, I will grant you a gift. In addition to my gift, all those whom you lost will still exist in this time."

Lelouch's eyes widened at God's last revelation. "You mean, Euphy and Shirly will be…"

"Correct," God assured him. "You will begin again in a time where both of them will still be alive and well." God smirked again before he said, "You also, knowing what you know, will have the opportunity to save them from the fate that they originally had."

Lelouch couldn't believe what God had just offered to him. _I can save them,_ he thought. _I can actually save them. I wouldn't have to lose anyone that I ever cared about._ A picture of his younger sister while they both lived together at Ashford Academy appeared in his mind. _Nunnally._

"What about this 'gift' you say that he'll receive?" C.C. skeptically asked God.

God's smirk widened on the face of Charles Zi Britannia. "You will possess the knowledge of the gift and be able to explain it to him, C.C."

"So I'm guessing that this 'gift' will have something to do with my Geass power then," Lelouch calculated.

Charles' laughter boomed as God laughed. "You _are_ quite intelligent!" God then looked him in the eyes and continued. "Yes. You will possess a Geass power unlike any other. C.C. will be the only being permanently immune to your new power since she is the one that opened you soul to the Power of the King."

Lelouch wondered at God's last words. "I believed that all Geass was ineffective against her because she possessed an activated Code and that all Code possessors were also immune because they possessed a higher form of Geass in the Code."

Charles' eyes continued to stare into Lelouch's own violet eyes as he revealed something to him that Lelouch thought was impossible. "Those who possess the Code believe that the Code is the final, strongest form of Geass. In that assumption, they are dreadfully wrong. The Code is not the ultimate form of the Power of the King!"

Both C.C.'s and Lelouch's eyes widened in amazement at what God had just revealed to them.

"You mean to tell me," C.C. began, "that there is a form of Geass that goes beyond granting immortality?"

God then continued to explain to them about the new power's history. "This power has only existed once before in the world. I forcefully removed it because the young man who was its possessor was corrupted by the power and became far too powerful for anything short of my direct action to stop him from completely obliterating the world. He was unable to control the ability that he'd been granted because he had no ambition other than greed and power." God then spoke directly to Lelouch. "You, however, possess a true, real reason for living and fighting. Because of this, you were already able to conquer the Geass power that C.C. opened your soul to once before."

C.C. seemed to realize something at the mention of the power's last owner. "Who was this power's previous wielder?" C.C. attempted to demand of God.

"His true name no longer exists in the minds of men," God assured her. "I removed his memory from all minds aside from the Code possessor that contracted him his power. And even that Code possessor no longer exists in the current world you will reside in."

"So there's no point in asking you to tell us his name because you won't reveal it to us. Is that right?" Lelouch had realized God's point.

Charles' head nodded from atop his mountainous frame. "You have no cause for concern. That man exists in the world no longer. Nor has he for millennia."

Lelouch nodded at God and then stood and looked towards C.C. "What do you think C.C.?" he asked her.

C.C. didn't seem to like that God had avoided answering her question, but she quickly returned to her usual self.

She then smiled at Lelouch. "I don't mind either way, Lelouch. Whichever you decide to choose, I will forever remain at your side." She then turned and faced God. "Will Lelouch retain his immortality?"

Charles' head shook at her question. "No. This power may surpass the Code in terms of power of Geass, but nothing other than the Code is able to grant someone immortal life."

C.C. appeared to be saddened when God told her that. Lelouch then quickly asked God, "Is it possible for me to steal a Code with my new power while I will be in that time?"

Charles' face nodded. "You will be able to steal a Code once your power has developed enough." God then had a wry smile on his face. "It is even possible to steal and possess multiple Codes before your first activates while you will possess this new power."

Lelouch was skeptical, but he continued to probe the deity for information. "Will I have the ability to grant a stolen Code unto another person?"

God grinned once more at Lelouch's inquiry. "You will." God's grin remained plastered on Charles' face as he continued. "If the power doesn't corrupt you like it did the last owner, you will be able to even _create_ Codes."

Lelouch was in disbelief at what God had just told him. _What on earth is he talking about? _Lelouch wondered.

God then continued his explanation. "Only four Codes will exist in the time which you will return to. However, when the world was created, it was possible to allow up to ten Codes to exist simultaneously."

C.C. then finished the thought. "So if Lelouch is able to conquer his power and not be corrupted, then he will be able to create and bestow up to six Codes. Is that right?" she directed her question to the visage of Charles Zi Britannia.

God nodded once more. "That is correct, C.C."

Lelouch couldn't get rid of his skepticism at the offer he was being given. "This offer seems too good to be true," he said to God. "Why should I believe that it's as genuine as you state?"

Charles' laughter rang out and echoed once more. "You made the world which I watch over interesting, Lelouch," he told the raven-haired youth. "You also saved me from the one weapon which has the ability to destroy me. You may choose whether to believe my words or not. But even if the power you will possess isn't what I say it is, will you not already possess a weapon even greater than any other when you return?"

Lelouch couldn't help but feel a grin appear on his face. _He's right,_ Lelouch silently thought to himself. _If I am sent back to the instant that I received my Geass, I'll have my original Geass power at least. But I'll possess all of my experience from what has happened in the first time around. I can even prepare for Charles' power. I may even be able to prevent Suzaku from initially betraying me to the Emperor._

Lelouch's grin turned devilish as he continued to realize all of the possibilities that this offer gave him.

A low, maniacal laugh game from Lelouch's mouth as he thought about the deal he was being offered. He threw his head back and the laugh continued to grow in volume as the seconds passed until it turned into a maniacal shriek.

He turned and looked at C.C., who appeared to be impassive at the scene. "You will remain by my side no matter what C.C.?"

She nodded at his suggestion. "I promise that I will never leave your side. No matter what happens."

"Very well," Lelouch said before he turned to God. "God!" he yelled. "I hereby accept your offer! Return C.C. and I back to when it all began! Send the two of us back to the story's beginning!"

Charles' laughed thundered throughout the World of C once more. "Very well!" God exclaimed. "The next time your eyes open, you will be back in the Shinjuku ghetto!"

Lelouch and C.C. were then surrounded and swallowed by complete nothingness and disappeared from the World of C.

God retained his Charles Zi Britannia image after the two of them had disappeared. "I believe that this one will be _much_ more interesting to watch," God said to himself as he turned and walked off of the platform, toward the orange sky.


	2. Restart Chapter 1

A/N: To all of you who are reading this, thank you. It is quite an honor to have such a good start. I have been truly humbled. Also to those of you who have already Favorited and/or followed my story, I can't tell you how happy I am for your support.

Now then, for the important part. This story is going to be divided into different 'parts.' Each 'part' represents an individual arc of the story. Part 1 is Shinjuku, Part 2 ends with Zero's debut, etc... However, these 'parts' are quite long, so I will also have a simultaneous list of chapters to help divide up the Parts and story so that the chapters don't get so long that they take up more than forty pages. This first chapter alone covered twenty pages, and it's not even half of Part 1. I have no intention of going through and naming each and every chapter that the story will have because I've already estimated that it could very well end up being just as long, if not longer than Dauntless and Megiddo (both of which are extremely long, but well worth the read by the way). I will only name the chapters which will signify the beginning of a new arc, or 'Part'. For instance, the name of Part 2 will be (at this moment) Zero's Rebirth. Therefore, the chapter which will signify the beginning of Part 2 will be named "Zero's Rebirth," or whatever the name ends up being.

Also, if there is a key scene from that canon that I have left out and skipped over to the immediate aftermath (like the whole Orange incident) just assume that it went exactly as it did in canon, because it did. While I am piggy-backing a little on the canon story-line, I only intend to actually write out the scenes which will differ or add on to what canon showed us.

Now then, drum roll please. *Crickets* Oh well, I tried. Here for your enjoyment is the beginning of Once More, with Feeling.

* * *

**Part 1: Restart**

* * *

**"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages." **

**William Shakespeare**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"…what do you think, boy?" The Britannian Lieutenant's arrogance stained every word that he spoke.

Lelouch opened his eyes and the stench of blood burned both of his nostrils. He noticed that he was in a tattered warehouse that seemed familiar, somehow, to him.

Lelouch then noticed C.C. lying down in her white prisoner's uniform. He realized that he was kneeling beside the green-haired immortal. Lelouch felt that his left hand was unusually warm. He looked at his hand, and noticed that C.C.'s blood coated his palm like a crimson glove.

He then recognized exactly where he and C.C. had arrived, as well as the situation that he was present in.

_I'm in the Shinjuku ghetto,_ his mind raced as he noted his location. _I'm sure of it._ Lelouch's devilish grin appeared when he thought about where he had been sent to. _So, _he thought, _it appears as though I _do_ get to do it once more. Except this time, _I _own all the pieces._ Lelouch couldn't help but laugh inwardly as he came to his realization.

Lelouch slowly stood and turned towards the soldiers of Clovis' Royal Guard that was led by the arrogant, foolish Lieutenant.

"Say," Lelouch began as he looked them in the eyes, both hands at his side. "How should a Britannian that detests his own country live his life?" he asked them once more.

The Lieutenant then raised his pistol and steadied it at Lelouch. He then asked the Britannian youth, "Are you some kind of radical?" The Lieutenant then appeared to be confused at Lelouch's apparent confidence, in spite of the dire situation that he looked to be in.

"What's wrong?" Lelouch asked them again with a grand sense of déjà vu. "Why not shoot? Your opponent is merely a schoolboy." Lelouch recited his previous life's lines as if he was an award-winning actor. "Or have you finally realized, that the only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed!?" Lelouch activated the Geass in his left eye, just like so long ago.

The Lieutenant shook as his confidence melted away at the sight of the majestic young man, only to be replaced by a bone-chilling fear. "What's happening here?" the Lieutenant demanded as he attempted to hide his inner panic and turmoil.

Lelouch dramatically raised and extended his left arm to his side, feeling nostalgic as he performed, and then gave them the order that he'd given them before. "I," Lelouch paused briefly before he began to finish his favorite line from when it began, "Lelouch Vi Britannia command you. Now, all of you. Die!" He spoke as he used the Geass residing in his left eye to overwrite the will of the soldiers who had cornered him.

"Happily your highness!" the Lieutenant exclaimed. The poor fool then chuckled maniacally as he and the rest of the Royal Guard soldiers under his direct command pressed their Britannian-issue side arms to the base of their skulls. "Fire!" the Lieutenant ordered as he began to pull his own trigger.

Gunshots, muffled by the flesh of their targets, rang out in the abandoned warehouse in the Shinjuku ghetto. Multiple corpses, recently made, fell to the ground, with each body making a "Thump!" as they hit the concrete floor.

Lelouch felt a small trickle of blood land on his cheek as he observed the scene act out once more.

"I must say," Lelouch said to no one else since he was the only human still occupying the warehouse. "This felt much better the second time around."

He turned to check on C.C., but the immortal woman was still 'asleep.'

_I'm never going to hear the end of this,_ he thought to himself as he checked her pulse. _She'll probably attempt to convince me to try and use the Sword of Akasha in response to God sending her back to the exact moment in which she'd been shot._

Lelouch stood after he'd confirmed her pulse from her 'revival.' He then turned from her and patiently waited for the silver-haired Britannian woman to appear so that he could steal her Sutherland once more.

_I need to decide how much I'm going to let Suzaku win,_ Lelouch pondered as he continued to await Viletta's arrival. _If I take too much from him, then Euphy won't choose him as her Knight._

His thoughts were rudely interrupted as the sound of Knightmare landspinners screeched into his ears.

Lelouch then checked his phone. _Right on time, Viletta._

"You there. What happened here?" Viletta's voice came from the Sutherland's speakers.

_Better keep to the script,_ he thought as he turned back to face the Sutherland he was about to 'borrow.' "I order you to come out!" Lelouch demanded of her once more.

"Who the hell are you to order me?" Viletta bit right back at him, anger barely concealed at his actions.

Lelouch put his hands up in order to signal that he meant no harm. _Not to the Knightmare, at least._ "My name is Alan Spacer," Lelouch said to the woman, "my father's a Duke." Lelouch smiled inwardly as he continued his charade of nobility. _Too easy._ He then informed her of how he wanted to have the military's protection after she'd confirmed who his was. _Here she comes,_ Lelouch thought as Viletta opened her cockpit block and descended on the wire.

Lelouch then activated his personal power and ordered the dark-skinned beauty to give him her Knightmare.

Viletta quickly followed his orders and gave him the Sutherland's key and access code.

Lelouch grinned as he gathered C.C. and placed her behind him in the Sutherland's cockpit.

"It's so simple," he stated as he re-familiarized himself with the Sutherland's controls. He couldn't help but remember his own personal Knightmares: the Guwain and the Shinkiro. "Oh well," he said as he readied himself to start moving. "Let's begin again now. Shall we?" Lelouch spoke as he piloted the stolen Sutherland to its next destination, his grin that could've been stolen from the devil himself plastered on his face.

* * *

Kallen Kozuki was piloting her one-armed Glasgow as best she could in order to survive.

"Damn it!" she screamed. "The difference is just too great." She grimaced in her Glasgow's cockpit. _I can handle just one easily, _she thought as her pursuers continued on her trail. _But I can't handle two Sutherlands while I'm in this shape._

She continued to run from the trailing Britannian Sutherlands, relying more on instinct in order to survive than skill.

The screen inside her cockpit which indicated energy-filler status began to loudly beep as it displayed a large "Caution" sign, indicating that she was about to run out of energy. "Just thirty minutes left." Kallen was dismayed when she realized that she was nearly done for.

"The west entrance." Her radio buzzed to life with an unfamiliar voice. "Take the tracks to the west entrance."

_That definitely wasn't Ohgi or Tamaki,_ she thought as she continued to run away from her new shadows. "Who are you?" she demanded as she yelled into her radio. "How did you get this code?" she fired off at the new voice.

"That doesn't matter," the voice answered her demands. "If you want to win, then you will trust my instructions." The voice continued to speak to her with a confident tone in his words.

"To win?" she breathed. _I don't like it, but I've got no choice, _she resigned to herself. _I'm done for at this rate unless a miracle happens, so I might as well see if this guy's good on his promises._

Kallen piloted her Glasgow onto the nearest train tracks, spun her landspinners at full speed, and sent her Knightmare west, just like the voice had told her. She noticed that her twin shadows were still following her closely as they trailed her onto the tracks.

"What am I doing next?" she asked her potential savior.

"Since you have followed my suggestion, you're going to be victorious here," the voice assured her. Kallen noticed a freight train on the same tracks she was travelling on, except that the freight was speeding directly at her. "Now jump onto the train!" the voice ordered her.

She immediately followed the order and had her Glasgow jump onto the main car and continued to have her Knightmare hop from car to car as she traversed atop of the train.

Once she'd reached the seventh train car, Kallen turned her Glasgow around in order to see how her Britannian 'friends' had reacted. She witnessed one of the two Sutherlands get hit and destroyed by a pair of Sutherland slash harkens. She immediately spun her landspinners at full speed and charged her Glasgow towards her now lone Sutherland pursuer.

She then saw one of the Britannian Knightmare's landspinners get destroyed as she continued to charge.

The Sutherland's pilot had apparently noticed her, because its manual ejection-seat mechanism activated and the Knightmare's cockpit ignited it's boosters in order to quickly retreat from the fight.

"Thanks for that," she said into her personal communicator to the voice. "But how did you get your hands on a Sutherland?" She then looked towards the building where she'd seen those slash harkens retreat back to, but there was only a crumbling building in her sight. "Where'd he go?" she wondered.

"Kallen!" Ohgi's voice came from her communicator this time. "Who was that on the radio earlier?" he asked her.

"You mean that he contacted you too?" she replied as her friends from the resistance movement came up to her Glasgow.

Ohgi nodded to her inquiry.

His radio then buzzed with static before the voice decided to return to them. "Are you the one who's in charge here?" the voice asked of the group's de facto leader since Naoto died.

"Uh," Ohgi nervously began. "Yeah, I guess." Ohgi appeared to be quite nervous at speaking to Kallen's savior.

"I give you the tools to your _victory_." The voice deliberately emphasized that word as he responded to Ohgi. "The cargo of that train should be more than enough. If you want to defeat your oppressors here and push them back, then you will follow my orders to the letter."

Kallen's sapphire eyes widened in amazement as she opened the freight train's cargo cars. Before the resistance group were many brand-new top-of-the-line Britannian Knightmares. "You've gotten a hold of _this_ many Sutherlands?" she asked the voice, her voice revealing her wonder at his gifts.

More than enough Sutherlands for her comrades were lined up within each train car. At the final tally, there was twenty Knightmares within the freight train. Each one fully equipped, just like the ones being used to destroy the Shinjuku ghetto she was fighting to protect.

Kallen saw Tamaki drooling at the sight. "Whoever this 'voice' guy is," the red-headed idiot began, "he sure knows how to treat his subordinates."

"Pilot of the Glasgow." The voice was calling to her once more. "Recharge your energy filler. You and your unit will be running decoy. I'll contact you all in ten minutes with my next instructions." The line went silent as the voice finished saying what he'd order them to do next.

Kallen was in complete disbelief at what she'd just witnessed. _Not only did he obtain a Sutherland for himself,_ she thought, _but this guy has just given the entire resistance movement the means to fight back. Just who _is _this guy?_ she pondered to herself.

Ohgi's voice came from her communicator next. "Kallen," he called. "We need to recharge your energy filler."

Kallen quickly snapped out of her daze after Ohgi had called her. "Roger that," she affirmed. She then moved her Glasgow over to the energy filler recharge station that was so conveniently located at the very rear of the freight train they were borrowing.

She quickly hooked her Glasgow up to the recharge station and waited until she got the notice that her energy filler had, indeed, started charging. After she'd confirmed that the equipment wasn't faulty, she started walking over to where she saw Ohgi, Tamaki, and Minami had gathered together and appeared to be discussing something.

"Oh, Kallen!" Ohgi had noticed her approaching first and had waved her over to join them.

Tamaki was leaning against the freight train, his arms crossed over his chest. He then asked Kallen, "You go any idea who that 'voice' coulda been Kallen?"

"Wow, for once Tamaki says something that could be called serious," Minami mocked him.

Tamaki immediately stood straight, raised his fist towards his ally who'd mocked him, and yelled, "Watch it Minami! I can be plenty serious whenever I want to be!"

Kallen then joined in on the fun. "Really?" she replied sarcastically. "I have yet to see that."

"Urgh!" Tamaki seemed peeved that Kallen was joining in on it. "You're lucky that you're the best Knightmare pilot we've got or I'll-"

"Calm down Tamaki." Ohgi, always the voice of reason, interjected before Tamaki could finish his threat that no one would take seriously.

Tamaki settled down from his quick-tempered nature after Ohgi had piped up.

After he'd confirmed Tamaki had calmed down, Ohgi then continued. "But Tamaki does raise a good question," he pointed out. "This 'voice' obviously knows what he's doing. I can't think of a reason for anyone from the JLF to be here, and no other resistance group has anyone that is even half as good as what we've seen this 'voice' accomplish in hardly twenty minutes."

Minami nodded at what Ohgi had said in order to confirm his claim. He then said, "Not only did he save your hide, Kallen." Kallen winced at the memory of having to be _saved_ by someone she didn't even know. "But he also, in the same movement, defeated two Sutherlands while simultaneously securing us a valuable weapons cache of superior Knightmares."

"Luckily," Ohgi continued, "Sutherlands seem to pilot in a similar fashion Glasgows. We should be grateful for that, or else we'd only have them as gigantic, two-ton paper weights."

"Back to Tamaki's rare smart moment," Minami began again. "It's clear to everyone that this 'voice' is a better tactician than anyone we've ever dealt with. But we can't seem to come up with any idea as to whom he might be. You go any clue Kallen?"

Kallen slowly shook her head since she'd no idea. "The only person I know of that fights _against_ Britannia and is capable of doing something like this 'voice' has done, is Tohdoh the Miracle-Maker. But he only works with the JLF and his personal force, the Four Holy Swords. There's no way in hell that he would be anywhere near the Shinjuku ghetto, let alone the Tokyo Settlement."

Ohgi nodded at Kallen's assessment of the situation. "So it very well could be possible that the person we're working with right now is completely new to the scene here in Area 11," he said to them all. "Whoever that 'voice' is, I get the feeling that he truly believes that we can win here today. I don't much care about us 'winning,' so to say. I just want this senseless slaughtering of the Japanese people to stop. If the 'voice' can do that, then I might seek him out and try to join up with him."

"Why?" Tamaki blurted out, a dumber look than normal on his face. "'We've been doing just fine on our own haven't we?"

"Tamaki!" Ohgi snapped at the group's local idiot. "Look around us." Ohgi motioned with his arms. "Shinjuku is in even worse of a state than it was just a mere two hours ago. The Japanese living as peacefully and best that they could are being mercilessly massacred in the homes they were living in. With what we had before this 'voice' showed up, we could barely keep ourselves alive, let alone the thousands of Japanese living here in Shinjuku.

"Before the 'voice' showed up, we only had one, obsolete, crippled Glasgow fighting against over a hundred top-of-the-line Sutherlands which are piloted by trained _soldiers_ need I remind you. Kallen is more than a great pilot, but even the Knight of One wouldn't be able to come out on top with those odds. Now the 'voice' has not only given us the means to actually fight back, he's given us a chance to win.

"Are you going to try and tell me that we could've gotten all these on our own, without the 'voice?' Because we couldn't have. I was actually about to order our retreat since the situation was too hopeless before. But now I feel like we could actually fight back. That we can actually push the Britannians back and save the Japanese here in Shinjuku."

Tamaki's jaw hung open as Ohgi's monologue had actually succeeded in shutting him up.

Kallen realized that she'd gotten Goosebumps during Ohgi's lengthy rant. _He sure is worth of being our leader,_ she thought to herself as she smiled towards Ohgi.

Ohgi sighed before he apologized. "I'm sorry for snapping like that Tamaki. It's just that I was overwhelmed from everything going on and I let my emotions burst out on you."

Minami spoke next. "You know Ohgi," he started. "You really are a leader. Don't bother trying to deny it."

Ohgi put one of his hands behind his head and looked like he was scratching the back of his neck. "I'm no leader. I can barely keep any of us from kicking the bucket."

Kallen shook her head in response to Ohgi's denial of being a leader. "No. You definitely are our leader Ohgi. You're the only one who could have gotten Tamaki to shut up like that."

Kallen and Minami snickered as she said that. Ohgi began to laugh nervously. Tamaki merely pouted and scowled at the other three since he was the butt of everyone's jokes today.

Kallen then said to them all, "I've gotta be getting back to my red cripple." She then turned around and started walking away. She waved as she began to walk back to her Glasgow.

"Be careful," Ohgi requested. "Okay Kallen?"

Kallen flexed her arms at them and said, "Did you forget who you're talking to Ohgi? I'm Kallen Kozuki, the pilot of the dreaded red Glasgow and best damn Knightmare pilot you'll ever set your eyes on. Even in my crippled, obsolete, hunk-of-junk Glasgow I can beat each and every one of you in a Knightmare duel, and you know it."

"You wanna put your money where your mouth is!?" Tamaki yelled at her as she was walking away.

"Any time, any place dumbass," Kallen responded to Tamaki's challenge.

Kallen didn't bother to listen to Tamaki's attempts at insulting her as she walked back to the end of the freight train towards the energy filler recharge station. The last site she saw before she tuned out everything happening back with those three was Ohgi and Minami holding Tamaki back from trying to chase her down and making the mistake of provoking Kallen's wrath while a Knightmare was near her.

_Ohgi might have been right,_ she thought as she walked back to her charging Glasgow. _Only a few people here in Area 11 could accomplish what the 'voice' did in just a few measly moments. Most of them aren't fighting against Britannia though. It's entirely possible that the person whom we're dealing with is a completely new face to the fight in Area 11. If that's the case, then we'll be the very first group that will have worked with him. I don't know why, buy for some reason, I like that idea,_ she mused.

Kallen continued to think over possible identities for this voice as she arrived back before her Glasgow. It was her favorite color. A deep red, almost crimson.

Kallen smiled as she remembered her deceased older brother. She recalled his bright, smiling face and all of the fun times that they'd shared together. All the way from when they had been a complete family living in a traditional Japanese house, to after he'd left her father's estate, but not before he'd swiped that bitch of a step-mother's jewelry. Kallen couldn't help but snicker as she remembered that bitch's face when she'd realized that her precious jewelry had been stolen from her personal safe.

"Naoto," Kallen wondered to herself. "What would you say right now? You always seemed to know just what to do, and then do it at the right time. Your instincts saved us more times than I'd care to admit, and you always had the perfect solution to anything. Would you tell us to trust this 'voice' figure, or would you tell us that the dangers were too great and we should distance ourselves from him in order to keep us from getting double-crossed and sold out by an unfamiliar ally? I only wish that you were still here with us. Then we'd know whether to trust this voice or not."

Her radio's static brought Kallen back from her daydream as it came to life. "I'm about give you your codenames and preliminary objectives for the operations. Are you ready?"

It was the voice.

It was time to start the counterattack.

* * *

"…I'll contact you all in ten minutes with my next instructions."

Lelouch leaned back into the cockpit of the Sutherland's chair as he finished the preliminary round.

_Everything is proceeding just as it did the last time I was here,_ Lelouch thought as he exhaled. _Kallen and Ohgi. It's great to hear their voices again._

He caught himself beginning to reminisce about experiences that hadn't even occurred just yet. Lelouch gently chuckled to himself as he realized the time paradox that he was in.

"If I remember right," Lelouch thought out loud. "The strategy that I was using the last time I was here ended up working perfectly until Suzaku appeared in the Lancelot and decided to spoil all the fun." Lelouch continued to form ideas as his mind raced on with methods he could use in order to immobilize, if not destroy the white and yellow thorn in his side. "Hmm. I could use my knowledge of Suzaku's tactics and the Lancelot's capabilities, combine the two and predict his battle pattern quite easily, thus enabling me to move on without that problem hindering my plans further along." He continued to form multiple plans on how to handle the Lancelot with the current pieces he had before him, but decided against it in the end. "No, that would be a bit too ambitious," he said to himself. "If everything works out the way that I predict it will, I'll gain Suzaku as a valuable ally sooner or later. He is a warrior whose strength was only matched by Kallen's, so he could become an invaluable piece on the board. I guess that I should let him have his glory as the White Knight of Britannia today."

Lelouch heard something stirring behind him.

He smiled as he turned around and was looking directly into C.C.'s lustrous golden eyes as they finally opened.

"That's rather creepy, Lelouch," C.C. said dryly as she sat up from behind Lelouch's cockpit seat.

"And here I thought that it was romantic to spend some time alone in a cramped Sutherland cockpit together," Lelouch replied sarcastically to the beautiful immortal behind him.

"Then you need to read something more romantic than a battle manual." C.C. maintained her dry tone as she spoke to him.

"It's good you woke up again," Lelouch said to her with legitimate sincerity in his voice.

C.C.'s cheeks tinged red slightly after Lelouch had told her that. She quickly returned to her usual self however and went back to teasing him. "You can't get rid of me _that_ easily."

Lelouch smiled as she returned to her usual manner of teasing. "If it was that easy," he said to her, "then I doubt that you would have stayed with me for as long as you have." Lelouch felt like inspiration hit him as he continued. "Oh, yes. This reminds me. I never thanked you for saving me that day in Shinjuku when it all started, did I?"

"You know that is unnecessary," C.C. said in her apathetic voice. "Dying doesn't remain permanent with me, so it was an easy decision to jump in front of the bullet."

"But it _is_ permanent for me," Lelouch emphasized. "Everything would have ended long before it ever had the chance to begin should that bullet have found its original mark."

C.C. merely stared into Lelouch's violet eyes as if to say to him, "Go on. Continue saying what you were."

"I owe you more than I could ever hope to begin to pay you back C.C.," he began. "I know that I would've ended up dead back in Shinjuku had you not saved me and given me my Geass back then. Nunnally would have lost her brother and she'd have never been able to find the reason behind it. I don't know how many times that I'll say this, but every time that I do, know that I say it with every ounce of whatever heart I have left." Lelouch paused before he finished with a simple, "Thank you, C.C."

C.C. smiled at that and her arms instinctually squeezed where she would have had her Cheese-kun plush with her.

She then realized that her favorite plush was missing from her chest. C.C. appeared to be rather despondent as her arms continued to squeeze the air that Cheese-kun should have been occupying, and she pouted, her upper lip quivering like a spoiled child.

Lelouch couldn't help but chuckle just a bit as his smile appeared on his face at the absurdity of the scene. _She must have _really_ liked that giant, yellow plush doll,_ he thought. "Don't worry," he reassured her, "you'll get your Cheese-kun back soon enough C.C."

C.C. nodded at his statement, her upper lip still quivering ever so slightly. "I'd better," she ordered. "He was the only one that I could talk to who wouldn't respond with some smart-ass remark or relentlessly tease me like Marianne enjoyed doing."

Lelouch allowed a small chuckle to escape from his throat at what she'd just said to him. "You get what you give, as they say. You love to tease people just to get some reaction from them, but you can't stand it yourself when you're the target of someone else's teasing?"

C.C. snorted at his assessment. "I at least knew when to stop, but you and your mother are exactly alike in that regard. The two of you just can't resist teasing a poor, helpless little girl like me."

Lelouch couldn't help himself. He burst out laughing while still in his Sutherland's cockpit at the sheer absurdity of her claim. "If you're a poor and helpless girl," he said, "then I'm even worse at tactics than that idiotic red-head Tamaki."

(Little did Lelouch and C.C. know, Tamaki had just sneezed, and then followed up his sneeze with a long list of curse words directed at whoever it was talking about him behind his back.)

C.C. smiled at his comparison. "It's about time you make fun of someone other than me."

"But I thought that you like the attention it gave you," Lelouch continued to tease her.

"Don't get me wrong," she began. "I love the attention. What girl doesn't? It's just that I'm beginning to feel a bit like Tamaki at the moment and I really don't like it."

(Tamaki had just sneezed once again and swore vengeance on "Those bastards who are too cowardly to say it to my face!")

Lelouch continued to gently laugh as he pressed the switch to release the Sutherland's cockpit in order to open up some room and let the stale air in the cockpit get replaced by some fresh air.

C.C. cocked an eyebrow at the action and playfully asked him, "Already trying to kick me out?"

"Why would I do that?" he playfully shot back. "I don't have anything that you can take half of in order to make it official."

C.C. giggled a bit before she told him, "Oh, you're good."

Lelouch took an obvious over-acting bow as he stood up from his Sutherland's cockpit chair. "Why thank you. I did have the privilege of learning from the best."

"I must say," C.C. said to him, her tone showing that she wanted to continue playing around. "It would seem as though that you've grasped one of the girl's special rules."

"If I may ask," he implored of her, "which one? There are _so _many that even I am unable to keep track of them." Lelouch continued to over-emphasize to words in order to keep the playful atmosphere.

C.C. then relayed him the information. "Why, how every woman wants to be flattered."

"Oh?" Lelouch cocked an eyebrow. "I remember Nunnally telling me that 'flattery will get you nowhere.' Or do the rules contradict themselves?"

"That's another rule for us."

"And what might that be?" Lelouch asked her as he began to climb out of the cockpit.

"That we are allowed to contradict ourselves, and still be right," she explained as Lelouch helped her out of the cockpit. "My, what a gentleman," she teased.

Lelouch bowed, his right hand over his chest like a Knight. "I do my best, fair madam." He then stood straight again and said to her, "I think that I'm beginning to understand what all of those poor fools back at Ashford were always complaining about."

"Oh? And what might that be Lelouch?"

Lelouch chuckled as he told her. "That it doesn't matter if whether you are right or wrong. Should you get in an argument with a woman, you are guaranteed to lose. Even if you pull a miracle and somehow convince her that she was the one whom was originally wrong, you will still lose. In one way or another."

C.C. lightly laughed at Lelouch's cynical assessment. "You have an unnecessarily cynical point of view Lelouch. We just don't like losing is all. I guess that you could say that we never really grow up in that regard."

"Well that sure is useful information," he replied as he rolled his eyes.

"It would seem that the great Demon Emperor owes more even more now," she teased.

Lelouch smiled. "I fully intend to start paying you back for everything once we make it back to Ashford."

C.C. cocked one of her eyebrows as her eyes gleamed with a sinister light. "My, my," she teased. "Do you intend at actually bring truth to Tamaki's rumors this time around?"

Lelouch wondered what the immortal meant by that. "Just what are you referring to C.C.?" he asked her.

C.C. chuckled as her hand covered her mouth. "How innocent of you. Surely you'd heard what my unofficial title was amongst the Black Knights because of our _secrecy_." She purposely emphasized the last word.

Lelouch then replied to her. "I never really paid attention to Tamaki's ramblings last time. I decided that I would only focus on moving forward back then."

"I'll give you a hint," she said with a sly grin adorning her face. "I think that Kallen began to harbor some very extreme feelings of jealousy once she'd heard Tamaki's completely inaccurate assumption of what our relationship was back then."

Lelouch felt the pieces in his mind fall into place. He felt his face flare up in embarrassment as he realized just what C.C. was insinuating. "Y-y-you mean that…" he stammered.

C.C. nodded, her sly grin still on her face. "Because of that idiot, Tamaki, I became known as Zero's Mistress." Her smile went from sly to lecherous before she continued. "Now, will you turn those rumors into truth here on our second round?" she whispered into Lelouch's ear, her voice laden with innuendo.

_Damn that dumbass,_ Lelouch silently cursed Tamaki for his complete misunderstanding. _But still…_ Lelouch couldn't help but notice the seductive figure of the emerald-haired woman.

Lelouch chuckled to himself as he figured out just where his mind was heading. "I guess it couldn't hurt to have a little fun this go around." He forced himself to sound confident while he felt his cheeks still burning.

Her lecherous smile didn't leave as C.C. said to him, "You truly are _so_ inexperienced Lelouch. All we're doing is going from third base all the way to home plate."

Lelouch's mind felt like it was melting as the images began to flood in. _I will _not_ die a virgin this time!_ he screamed to himself. _I wonder how it'll be. She got centuries of experience._ Lelouch didn't know it was possible, but his face burned even more as that thought entered his mind.

C.C. then leaned her mouth next to his ear once more and sensually whispered to him, "Don't worry. I'll be gentle with you since it's your first time."

-DRIP-

Lelouch's hand immediately moved to cover his nostrils since blood had begun to leak. _What the hell,_ he thought. _I've never gotten a nosebleed before. So why does it leak blood when I'm faced with this woman's un-surpassed seductiveness?_

C.C. burst out laughing as she saw the state that she'd put him in. "To think," she said through her laughs, "even the indomitable Demon Emperor Lelouch has such a side to him. I guess that you are a warm-blooded male after all."

_Damn this witch_, Lelouch thought to himself. _She's toying with me. If I'm unable to find some way to counter-act this, then she'll eventually end up owning my soul._

"You can relax Lelouch. I have no intention of turning you into my personal toy." Lelouch swore that her eyes had a bone-chilling twinkle in them. "Not to say that I couldn't if I really wanted to." C.C. appeared to be happy that she'd made him vulnerable for a moment. "However, you wouldn't be my Lelouch if I did that, now would you?"

Lelouch wiped his nosebleed on his Ashford uniform's sleeve. "That's good to know. No matter how much I seek to deny and conceal it, I am still an adolescent human male. But I think that I'll have some more fun with the ladies this time."

"I don't mind sharing, but remember who's at the top." Her words were so cold that Lelouch felt the air around him shiver. "I don't want to have anyone try to steal what belongs to me. It would be a crying shame if I had to 'assert' myself on those below me."

Lelouch felt his spine tingle from her words. "You don't have to concern yourself with that," he assured her nervously. "I'll make sure that nobody challenges your position on top." Lelouch felt himself blush once more as he realized his word choice just a little too late.

C.C. giggled at the sight of Lelouch's face turn cherry red. "We'll take turns, so relax Lelouch. Besides, it's about time to contact to soon-to-become Black Knights."

Lelouch forced himself to calm down, but his heart refused to cooperate with his demands and continued to race. "You're right. This time, though, I don't intend to confront Suzaku. If I remember right Suzaku is deployed right after I had Kallen collapse the floor. I guess that I'll simply 'disappear' right then."

C.C. seemed puzzled at the lack of plan change. "Aren't you going to destroy the Lancelot early-on in order to prevent it from interfering later on?"

Lelouch shook his head at her suggestion. "I had the same idea earlier, but I quickly dismissed the notion. It would change far too much. The Lancelot develops into the inspiration for all future Knightmare frames. Suzaku is also only able to advance as far as becoming Euphemia's personal Knight through repeatedly proving his abilities and winning the un-winnable situations. If I end up gaining Euphy's support, as I intend to do, then Suzaku will become an invaluable chess piece. I would have two warriors that are capable of defeating the Knights of the Round."

C.C. seemed to accept his logic. "I think that I get your overall plan. It hinges on Euphemia's support then?"

Lelouch smirked as he climbed back into the Sutherland's cockpit. "Not at all. That is merely the best possible scenario."

C.C. began to enter into the cramped cockpit as she was asking, "Then what is the revised plan, Lelouch?"

"I'll tell you after our 'fun' tonight. Right now, I've got to go and commit fratricide on a particular Britannian Third Prince."

"Very well," C.C. sighed. "I'll be quiet until you're done then. But I want my Cheese-kun back as soon as possible," she demanded like a spoiled child.

Lelouch stopped himself from retorting that she couldn't have built up enough Pizza Hut points any faster than she'd accomplished last time. _I've got more important things to do,_ he told himself. Lelouch reached for where he'd left Ohgi's group's communicator, but it wasn't there!

Lelouch nearly panicked when he couldn't find the radio that he'd stolen.

"Looking for this?" C.C. asked as she procured the desired object from behind her back.

"That was cruel of you," Lelouch told her icily. "And I thought that you said you'd be quiet?"

C.C.'s face looked like a playful cat's as she averted her gaze and pretended to focus on the Sutherland's cockpit hatch as it hissed shut.

Lelouch sighed. _Oh well,_ he thought._ It's time to start anyways._

He then flipped on the communicator and began to list out his instructions.

"I'm about to give you your codenames and preliminary objectives for the operations. Are you ready?"

* * *

**A/N: **To all of you whom have read through the first chapter, THANK YOU. Tell me what you honestly thought. Please leave a review, and unless it is spam, I will read it and take in your opinion of my child.

Also, I just want to say it so that there is no misunderstanding. I AM NOT SEXIST! So please don't take that scene out of context and spin some weird sexist accusation at me. While I have been called worse, it still offends me to be called something that I'm not. That scene was played out by me and my sister, who is an absolute RIOT.

I'm going to go ahead and say this now, but C.C. will not be the same C.C. that we saw in R1 if you can't already tell. While she will enjoy teasing Lelouch and making him miserable, she won't be disagreeable or distant any more. I'm basing her change on a woman from a series of Light Novels I have read called Campione! (which I HIGHLY recommend reading by the way. Also, fifty points to the first person who can name the female character I used, but my beta is not allowed to guess because you already know). I have no intentions on revealing any information about character pairings, because I honestly don't know who's going to end up dead. Who knows, I could pull an M. Night Shamalan (did I spell that right?) and have it wind up with Lelouch and Sayoko in the end (though I highly doubt I would do that to you).

Once more, I am eternally grateful to those of you who have read this and are enjoying it. Also, SHARE it with other people. As they say, "Sharing is caring."

Thanks again. I'll see you all in the review section.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Lelouch estimated that Clovis was beginning to panic now.

_A mere thirty minutes, that's all it takes to put you in your place 'brother,' _he smirked to himself.

He and C.C. were hiding together in the Sutherland that he'd stolen from Viletta once more, far away from the battle.

"Suzaku should be making his debut to the battlefield soon," he reminded himself.

"How do you intend to deal with him?" C.C. asked him. "You did already say that you will allow him to be the White Knight today didn't you?"

"That's not staying quiet," he observed.

C.C. pouted after he said that. "I'm just asking. You don't have to be so cold about it," she stated.

"I'm pretty sure that I told you that I have no intention of coming into contact with Suzaku while he's in the Lancelot today," he reminded her. "Now that Clovis has broken his personal forces and is surrounding the decoy that I set up again, I'm going to blend in with the stragglers left over from when Kallen collapses the floor and pretend to be a Britannian pilot. I'll make sure that Ohgi and the others take me out with them," Lelouch calmly explained to the green-haired woman.

"Why not just go around and take Clovis' G-1 right now?" she asked him. "You won't need to get shot at, nor take the risk of getting hurt by your allies. So why do you want to get shot?" she queried of him.

Lelouch shook his head in order to dismiss the notion she just suggested. "It won't really matter one way or the other. I've ensured that Suzaku will be the one who is victorious today. I'm going to allow my Sutherland to be destroyed in order to prevent my encounter with the Lancelot. Even Kallen wouldn't be able to handle Suzaku in a mere fifth generation Knightmare. Besides, I've already prepared someone else to act my part today and hide where I was last time. Suzaku should run into them, so the effect on the future should be a miniscule amount. The battle will play out about ninety-five percent the same as it did last time, except that this time I'm in a considerably amount of less danger of being captured."

"Yet you're going to be taken out by the people who've become your subordinates," C.C. pointed out. "Isn't that more dangerous?"

"I'm going to tell you something about the last time I was in Shinjuku," he told her. "If Suzaku hadn't decided to stop chasing me and save that falling woman last time, I would have definitely been captured and been taken before Clovis. I also have no doubt that Clovis would have recognized me immediately and sent a team to find Nunnally at Ashford. I'm not going to bet my fate on the gamble that Suzaku _might_ save someone again instead of taking me captive and sending me back to Pendragon. Clovis is also still looking for you, might I add. I'm also pretty sure that you'd rather not be found by him."

"I understand," C.C. resigned. "But I still don't like it. You could've come up with something that didn't require you to be shot at."

"You don't need to like it," he said flatly. "I'm the one betting my life here, not you."

C.C. sighed at his flat statement. "Very well then. I guess that I'll return to being quiet again.

_Thank God for that._ He didn't dare say it where she could hear.

Lelouch looked down at the layout map of the Shinjuku ghetto that his Sutherland had uploaded into it when Viletta had been deployed.

He pressed down on his stolen communicator's receiver. "Q-1, do you have a map of the local area?" he asked her again.

His radio static preceded Kallen's familiar voice. "Yes I have a layout of the old settlement," she answered," but it has no current landmarks."

"It'll do," he assured her.

Lelouch's Sutherland's internal computer console beeped as the desired file arrived for his viewing.

He then opened the file, nostalgia seemingly permeating from the electronic map as he did. Lelouch quickly re-memorized the layout of the ghetto Kallen had provided him once more.

"Q-1," he began to recite the same orders he'd given them last time. "Take your group and descend below your current position."

"How?" his radio chirped with the fiery red head's voice.

Lelouch smiled as he remembered Kallen's abrasive nature. "Enter the subway station that is one-hundred meters west of your current position. You will then immediately move at full speed back east, remaining underground as you do so."

"Very well," Kallen acknowledged his orders.

_Thirty seconds until it all begins once more. It's about time for me to start heading to my new position._ Lelouch moved his Sutherland from its hiding place behind a building that the Britannians had knocked over when they began the assault on the Shinjuku ghetto as he finished his thought. _Good,_ he thought as he looked over his Sutherland's map of the ghetto again. _Ohgi and Tamaki are headed that way, just as I had ordered. _ He had noticed all of the blue icons indicating the stolen Sutherlands.

Lelouch activated his Sutherland's Britannian IFF signal as he then finished the countdown in his head.

"Now Q-1," he told her once more. "Turn your Glasgow around and use your slash harkens to collapse the ceiling twenty meters behind you. After your harkens have retracted, move your Glasgow at full speed away from the area and you and your unit are to join up with P-1 and P-5 as you exit the subway. The appropriate exit is another hundred meters eastward."

"Roger," Kallen confirmed her orders.

"With this Clovis," he said again. "I call check."

Lelouch watched with a great amount of pride building up in his chest as he witnessed a few dozen "LOST" icons appear from where Clovis had foolishly sent the bulk of his Knightmare forces because of the floor collapsing from underneath them.

_Five minutes. That's about all the time I have left before this Sutherland becomes scrap._ He thought as he moved his Sutherland towards the few remaining active Britannian Knightmares.

Lelouch smirked as he successfully blended in with the group of Britannian Sutherlands that had survived the last attack. Not a single unit noticed the new Knightmare.

_As I thought. They were in too great of a shock at what they had just witnessed to notice one more join them._ He then activated his radio and signaled to Ohgi, "P-1. Are you in position?"

"Yes we are," Ohgi confirmed. "Can you give us your name at least? Something to call you by other than just the 'voice.'"

Lelouch grinned devilishly as an idea spawned in his mind. _I guess I can tell them,_ he thought at Ohgi's question. Lelouch then spoke directly into the radio he'd acquired. "You may refer to me as Zero."

"Zero? Like nothing?" Ohgi sounded bewildered at the name as he was given the name of Japan's future savior.

Lelouch simply cut off his stolen radio instead of saying anything else to Ohgi's group. He was going to speak to them no more, today.

"Three. Two. One… Now!" Lelouch counted down.

Ohgi and Tamaki's group of stolen Sutherlands appeared from behind a collapsed building.

"Brace yourself C.C.," he told her. "It's about to get rather bumpy here for a minute."

"Did you forget who you are talking to?" C.C. snorted back at him.

"I'd prefer it if you weren't injured at all." Lelouch spoke with a detectable hint of sincerity in his voice.

C.C. blushed slightly as she realized what he meant.

With her face still tinged red, she nodded at his earlier suggestion. She then grabbed onto Lelouch and held on tight as the Sutherland's auto-eject activated and sent the two of them away at breakneck speed.

Lelouch's face felt hot as the two of them flew off, together.

* * *

Kallen had just arrived at the rendezvous point that the 'voice' had given her over the radio.

It was only a brief moment before both Ohgi and Tamaki's units arrived at the point as well.

"Kallen!" Ohgi exclaimed over the communicator channel. "Are you alright?"

"I'm still here aren't I?" she smirked back her answer.

"Cocky little…" Tamaki's mumblings were picked up by his over-sensitive radio.

"Well, after you take out over twenty different Sutherlands at the same time, maybe you will get to brag as well Tamaki." Kallen absolutely loved teasing her hot-headed friend and ally.

"Don't make me come over there you little brat!" Tamaki screamed over the radio.

Ohgi's Sutherland quickly moved in front of Tamaki's and prevented the idiot from trying to engage Kallen while she was in her Glasgow. "Calm down Tamaki!" Ohgi yelled over the radio. "We still have our next objective to take care of." His Sutherland then turned towards Kallen and Ohgi asked her over the radio, "Kallen, how did your operation go?"

Kallen moved her Glasgow to where it looked like it was flexing its one remaining arm like it was showing off its bicep. "It was a raging success!" she excitedly reported to him. "Everything happened the exact way which the 'voice' said it would. I don't know who he might be, but he is definitely the real deal."

"That he is," Ohgi agreed. "But didn't you hear his last transmission?"

Kallen wondered which one he meant. "What do you mean? Did he actually give us his name while I was underground and out of range for the communicators?"

Ohgi's Sutherland shook its head. "He didn't give us his real name, but we do have a name we can use. He isn't just the 'voice on the radio' anymore."

Kallen cocked an eyebrow at that. She then asked him, "Did he simply call himself Nemo, for nobody?" Kallen expected something along those lines. _That guy seems to be overly cautious. He doesn't appear to trust us with his name, and while I don't like it, I don't blame him for it. After all, we just met. He also probably wants to remain anonymous for as long as he is able. The problem with that is that he'll never gain the complete trust of anyone he works with if he hides behind a radio and a fake name._ Kallen then remembered something. _I have to remember to thank Jason and the Argonauts for giving me that idea for his name. The _Iliad_ was worth the read for my classics class._

"Not quite," Ohgi told her. "But you're actually quite close with your guess. He told us that we can call him Zero."

"Obviously ain't his real name," Tamaki grumbled over the radio.

Kallen pounced on the opportunity to piss off the fiery red-head once more. "Really Tamaki? I had no idea. And here I thought that he'd just read us his birth certificate because he trusted us so much." The sarcasm was just dripping off her words.

Ohgi was forced to recruit Minami over in order to restrain Tamaki's Sutherland in order to save him from making the grave mistake of trying to duel Kallen in a Knightmare, even if she was in a crippled Glasgow.

Tamaki's incoherent insults continued to exude from her radio, but Kallen paid them no mind. She then began to think to herself. _It's just as I thought. He probably won't trust us, but we _have _to trust and follow his orders or we don't have a snowball's chance in hell at pushing the Britannians back again._ Kallen then leaned back into her Glasgow's cockpit chair and continued to think to herself while she blocked out the insults coming from her communicator. _Still, I can't help but feel, somehow, that Zero's voice isn't completely foreign to me. I feel as though I have heard that voice from somewhere before. But _where_? _Kallen bit the tip of her thumb as she racked her brains to try and put a name and face to the voice of Zero.

"Damn it!" she screamed in frustration while she sat in her cockpit. "Where do I know that voice from? Ohgi, has Zero sent any new orders aside from our next objective?"

"Negative," Ohgi replied to her while still holding back Tamaki. "Ever since he told us a name, he's gone radio silent. He also isn't responding to any of our radio hails. I think that there are two possible reasons for it. Something has happened to him, or he's working on something himself, away from everyone else here."

_I hope it's the latter and not the former,_ Kallen thought.

"This is N group!" Kallen's radio chirped. "We've got a serious problem here!"

"Yoshida! Report!" Ohgi was using his seldom-used leader voice as he ordered over the radio.

_Yoshida sounds panicky. I wonder what's happening over there._ Kallen leaned in closer to her radio in order to listen closely to her friend.

"We're being wiped out!" Yoshida screamed back over the radio. "Send reinforcements immediately!" Yoshida's voice cracked in and out from the radio as he hysterically screamed for assistance.

"R group, what's your current status?" Ohgi commanded over the radio since Zero hadn't responded to the crisis.

Kallen's spine chilled as her radio remained silent. There was no response from Sugiyama's group.

"B group report!" Ohgi continued to yell over the radio.

No response from Inoue either.

"Yoshida, report your situation damn it!" Ohgi began to sound a little frantic over the radio channel.

"It's just one!" Yoshida screamed over the radio. "It's only one-" Kallen's radio began to emit nothing but static as Yoshida's voice cut off.

Kallen looked at the area layout that her Glasgow's inner computer had uploaded into its system. She then proceeded to type in Yoshida's Sutherland's IFF code into her Knightmare's IFF search function. _What on earth in happening here? _she asked herself as she typed. As she finished typing the appropriate IFF into the computer, she pressed the "Search" function key in order to find and track Yoshida's group.

Five "UNIT LOST" signs were visible from Yoshida's last location.

"Damn!" she cursed under her breath. "Ohgi, has Zero sent us any new orders in response to this?"

"Not a one." Ohgi sounded like he was very near panicking at the new situation.

"I'm going after the bastard who took out my buddy Yoshida!" Tamaki yelled over the radio as his Sutherland sped off towards Yoshida's last known location.

"Damn it Tamaki! Hold for orders!" Ohgi frantically chased after Tamaki.

Kallen radioed Minami as she saw Ohgi and Tamaki disappear behind a fallen building. "Shall we?"

"I guess we've got no choice," Minami replied.

Kallen and Minami then accelerated their Knightmares and followed after Ohgi and Tamaki. Kallen wasn't happy that her Glasgow couldn't keep up with the Sutherland's superior speed since Minami had to slow his pursuit in order to prevent himself from pulling away.

_Yoshida's last transmission worries me,_ she thought as her and Minami continued to pilot their Knightmares through all of the collapsed buildings of the Shinjuku ghetto. _He said that it was only one Knightmare, didn't he? If that's true, then could it be a new model? I think that Zero would've known if a sixth generation Gloucester was present. No. Now that I think about it. Even if a Gloucester was here in Area Eleven, there isn't anyone here that has a high enough title to be piloting one. Cornelia and her Glaston Knights are off fighting Brittania's war in the Middle East, and I'm pretty sure that it would've been quite a scene if any of the Knights of the Round happened to have arrived in Area Eleven. Could it really be a new Knightmare?_ Kallen wondered.

"Are you kidding me?" Tamaki's voice was filled with disbelief as it came through the radio. "How'd this bastard do _that_?"

"I can't believe it…" Ohgi sounded as though he couldn't believe whatever was happening either.

_I'd better hurry,_ she thought as she accelerated her Glasgow up to full speed. Kallen's knuckles were white from how hard she was squeezing the controls of her Glasgow.

Minami had apparently been thinking the same thing as Kallen. Kallen saw his Sutherland accelerate further and displayed its superior speed as he began to pull away from her.

"The damn thing reflects bullets!" Tamaki screamed over the radio hysterically.

Kallen couldn't believe what she'd just heard from her radio. _I know that Tamaki may not be the smartest, but still. It _reflects_ bullets? _she wondered. _If what he said is true, then this mysterious Knightmare isn't equipped with just a superior armor._

Kallen came around the corner she'd just seen Minami disappear behind at full speed. She felt her jaw drop at what she was seeing.

There was one, lone, Knightmare fighting against Tamaki, Minami, and Ohgi. Not only was it fighting, but it was _winning_. She was unable to notice anything distinguishing about it because it was moving too fast for her eyes to follow. The only thing that the Knightmare appeared to be was a white and yellow flash.

_That's _definitely_ a new model. I've never even heard of anything this fast,_ she marveled. _This is unreal! Its agility is amazing!_

She then saw the Knightmare perform an action that she thought was impossible for something so large. The white and yellow frame leaped into the air, began to spin while still soaring towards Tamaki, extended its leg while spinning, and connected its kick with Tamaki's Sutherland's head.

_The damn thing just performed a spinning back-kick!_ she admired once more. _There's no way something that big should be able to move like that._

"Urgh!" Tamaki said over the radio as the new Knightmare's slash harkens penetrated the Sutherland's upper torso and forced the auto-eject feature of his Sutherland to activate and send him flying away from the battle.

Kallen couldn't believe what she was seeing as the new Knightmare went back to handling both Ohgi and Minami, both of which had separated and began to re-engage the foe before them.

The Knightmare bounded over Minami's slash harken and bend it's torso as the two factspheres appeared from its chest.

Kallen couldn't understand how this was happening. The damned Knightmare was _toying_ with them. This new Knightmare was treating these brand-new Sutherlands as if they were nothing more than play-things.

"Not if I can help it," she said through gritted teeth.

Kallen then moved her Glasgow over to where Tamaki's now-defunct Sutherland was lying down. She grabbed the dead Sutherland's assault rifle and leveled it at the white and yellow Knightmare.

Kallen saw the two factspheres appear on its chest as it had apparently noticed her.

"You won't beat us you Britannian!" she shrieked as she pressed the firing trigger and emptied out the magazine of the rifle she'd stolen.

The white and yellow Knightmare merely raised one of its forearms before it in response to her actions. The Knightmare's arms then began to shine as none of the bullets connected with the Knightmare frame before her.

Kallen's eyes widened in shock at what she'd just witnessed. _Tamaki was right! This new Knightmare _does_ reflect bullets. If I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes then I would have called whoever said it a baka, regardless of whether it was Tamaki or not._

Kallen didn't notice as the new Knightmare sped towards her at speeds she had never conceived was possible for any war machine.

"Kallen!" Ohgi and Minami both simultaneously screamed over the radio as they saw the white and yellow Knightmare close in on her.

_I'm done for, _she realized. _I can't take on that _thing_ with a one-armed Glasgow._

Kallen saw the Knightmare's hand clench into a fist as it was sent towards her Glasgow's torso.

Kallen lurched forward as her Knightmare's auto-eject activated and sent her flying away at near-supersonic speeds.

The only sight that was in her mind was that white and yellow flash of the Knightmare.

"I'll beat that thing if it's the last thing I do," she vowed to herself as her cockpit's parachutes activated and slowly drifted to the ground below her.

* * *

"Well, Lelouch?" C.C. sounded peeved.

Lelouch's face was beet red. _Why me?_ he silently groaned.

Because the cockpit's parachutes refused to deploy, the Sutherland's cockpit landed without losing any momentum from its speedy retreat and C.C. had been tossed around inside the cockpit block because she hadn't been strapped in like Lelouch. She had ended up landing while sitting directly on top of Lelouch's lap, their faces apart from each other by a hair's breadth.

"Can you please remove your bottom from my lap C.C.?" he requested while his face still burned.

"Oh," she teased the boy. "I thought that you said that you enjoyed the cramped space we were sharing together." C.C. began to grind her hips while they rested on his lap, a lecherous smile on her face.

"You're a sadist!" he screamed at her.

"And what if I am?" she teased back at him, her hips continuing to grind on his lap.

_This is just unreasonable!_ he screamed in his head. "In case you've forgotten, I still haven't killed Clovis yet," he reminded her while she continued to grind her hips. Lelouch couldn't help but feel a certain area of him begin to react to her actions.

C.C. let a sensual moan escaper from her lips as Lelouch grabbed her hips. "So forceful, Lelouch," she added.

"Shut it witch," Lelouch ordered her as he lifted her off of him. "I told you that we would have our 'fun' later tonight, didn't I?"

"What if I don't want to wait for it?" she sounded like a spoiled child as she asked him.

Lelouch felt his face burn once more as he tried to tell her off. _I might get slapped,_ he thought,_ but Clovis _has_ to die in order for anything to really start._ He steeled himself and stared directly into the immortal woman's golden eyes. "Then do it yourself," he told her flatly.

C.C.'s amber eyes continued to stare into Lelouch's violet ones as his lewd words reached her ears.

She then began to giggle like a schoolgirl as she raised her hand to cover her mouth.

"Eh?" Lelouch was completely taken by surprise at her unexpected reaction. After all, he _had_ just essentially told her to go and masturbate while he was off killing his half-brother.

"My, my." C.C. continued to giggle. "It would seem that you aren't completely oblivious after all."

"I _do_ know about it." Lelouch felt his cheeks flare up again as he said to her, "I just wasn't ever able to put it into practice." He nervously scratched his red cheeks as he finished revealing to her that he'd died once before as a virgin.

C.C. assumed her guise of an innocent schoolgirl as she said to him, "Alright then. I guess that we'll put theory into practice then." C.C. climbed off of his lap and continued, her usual C.C. tone restored. "But we'll have to save it for later. Right now, you've got a brother to go and kill." She then began to help him un-strap himself from the cockpit's pilot seat.

"Thank you," Lelouch said to her as the final strap was undone. He then placed his hand over his still-racing heart. _How is it that this woman can toy with me so easily?_

C.C. pulled the release lever in order to open the cockpit. It opened with a hiss, and she climbed out first. "It's all clear," she called back to him.

"I'll be out in a moment," Lelouch answered. "I need to change into my disguise. Can't very well walk up to Clovis' personal transport dressed as a student now can I?"

C.C. gently laughed at the notion of him killing Clovis in his Ashford uniform. "And here I thought that you just simply walked up and pulled the trigger."

Lelouch clambered out of the cockpit after another moment, fully changed into his soldier disguise. "I am essentially doing that this time."

"This time?" C.C. asked.

Lelouch shrugged. "In case you forgot, my priority last time was discovering who murdered Marianne. So I used my Geass on him and ordered him to tell me what he knew, but the idiot had no clue. Now that I know that it was V.V., there really isn't a point to using it on him. I'm just going to force him to stop destroying Shinjuku, and then kill him after revealing myself to him. I loved the look on his face when he saw who I was last time."

"My, aren't you the dramatic one," C.C. teased him. "Very well. What do you want me to do in the mean-time then?"

"I want you to keep ahold of these," Lelouch said as he handed her his black and gold Ashford student uniform. "Then I want you to head to the North subway station exit and I'll meet up with you there after Clovis has been slain."

"So you got out the same way that I did then," C.C. giggled. "Alright. I'll meet you there, but make it quick. I despise waiting."

"Don't I know it," Lelouch stated as he turned around and started to walk towards his goal. He waved back to the immortal woman as he moved away from her, getting closer and closer to his soon-to-be-dead half-brother.

He'd been trekking for around ten minutes before he eventually came to Clovis' private G-1.

_Suzaku should be battling with Ohgi, Kallen and the others for a bit._ Lelouch grinned as he came upon the lone guard defending the Third Prince's personal transport. _This is too easy the second time around._

"Halt!" the guard ordered as he leveled his rifle at the approaching Lelouch. "This is Prince Clovis' personal transport. Who are you?" the guard barked.

"I'd like you to let me pass," Lelouch suggested as he activated his Geass residing in his left eye.

"Of course," the guard replied to him. "Alright then."

_Strange, he didn't sound as if he was in a trance-like state this time, _Lelouch realized. _C.C. will have to explain how my power has changed. Now that I think about it, Viletta and that Lieutenant were the same. Quite interesting._

Lelouch used his Geass to clear the way to Clovis, just like he did last time.

_Every one of them,_ he noticed. _It isn't my imagination. While their irises do show the red ring around them, thus signifying Geass usage, that is the only sign that they show. Their eyes don't become glazed over, their speech patterns retain their normalcy, and their body movements don't appear to be forced at all. Without a doubt, my power has indeed changed._

Lelouch stopped his mind from wandering and brought himself to focus on the task at hand.

_It's time to die, Clovis._ Lelouch grinned devilishly as he opened the double doors leading to the G-1's command center.

"Who the hell are you?" Clovis demanded. "I gave strict orders for everyone to leave me alone while my brother's 'toy' was rampaging."

Lelouch leveled his sidearm at the Viceroy and told him flatly, "An enemy. I'm here to force an end to this slaughter."

"Are you the one who's been outwitting me this whole time?" Clovis nervously took a step back, away from the hostile presence.

Lelouch let a low laugh vibrate in his throat. "It wasn't even a challenge. Facing off against you is too easy of a game, but before that." Lelouch fired off a single shot a Clovis' feet, missing by no more than six inches. "You're going to order all troops to cease all killing and property destruction here in the Shinjuku ghetto."

"A-a-alright, alright," Clovis stammered while he kept his hands opened up in front of him. "I'll stop everything."

"Good. Now make it quick," Lelouch demanded of his older brother.

Clovis immediately activated the communications console and sent out the order to all of his troops to cease the attack on the ghetto and to peacefully retreat and gather together. After he'd finished, Clovis turned towards Lelouch, who was still shrouded by the darkness, and asked, "Satisfied?"

"Quite."

"Now just who are you?" Clovis asked of him. "I can tell from your speech and mannerisms that you aren't an Eleven."

Lelouch laughed again. "I guess that I'll show you," he said dramatically as he removed his soldier's helmet and threw it aside. "It's been quite a while, hasn't it my big brother." It was a statement, not a question.

Lelouch then moved himself out of the cloak of darkness and revealed his face to the Viceroy and Third Prince.

Clovis' eyes widened in shock as he witnessed the supposed-to-be-dead half brother, with his raven-black hair and those violet eyes that he inherited from the Emperor, come back from the dead. "Y-y-you mean that you're still alive?" he stammered at the sight.

"Indeed I am," Lelouch told him. "No thanks to our loving father or nation." His words were icy as Lelouch spoke to his brother.

"I-I'm overjoyed to see you're still alive Lelouch." Clovis was in shock and disbelief at the image of Lelouch Vi Britannia standing before him.

Lelouch started to slowly approach Clovis, who was sitting in his private throne, with the sidearm he was carrying still aimed at the merciless Prince who'd ordered the Shinjuku massacre a second time. "I've returned from the depths of hell to change _everything_ my dear brother," Lelouch said as he continued to walk over to Clovis. "And I intend to destroy fate itself in order to do so."

Clovis' eyes shook in fear as Lelouch's gun game to rest between his eyes, Lelouch's finger hovering over the hair-trigger. "You can't!" Clovis begged of him. "You and I may have different mothers but you and I are still blood!"

Lelouch's devilish grin returned as he slowly squeezed the trigger with his forefinger, nostalgia running through his veins as the gunshot rang out once more.

* * *

"Huh?" Kallen couldn't believe her luck.

Right as she prepared herself to join her brother in the afterlife, Clovis ordered a retreat and ceasefire to all Britannian troops.

_This has to be the work of that Zero character,_ she thought as she saw the Britannian troops turn around and begin to leave. _There's no other possible explanation._

Ohgi had apparently been thinking the same thing. When she looked over to him, Ohgi simply nodded to her.

Kallen then noticed that Minami and Yoshida were working together holding Tamaki down and covering his mouth in order to prevent the local idiot from provoking the Britannians again.

Once everyone was certain that the retreat wasn't false and they realized the Britannian military wouldn't be returning, they all let out a great, collective sigh.

Kallen and Ohgi stared at each other, and the two of them began to laugh.

_I don't know how he did it, but Zero saved our lives today. Mine twice._

"Well now what?" Tamaki blurted out after Minami and Yoshida got off of him and let him speak.

Ohgi calmly answered. "Now we lay low for a good while."

"Why should we?" Tamaki demanded. "The Britannians are on the run right? We should take 'em out while they showed us their backs." Tamaki, as foolish as ever, didn't understand the situation they were in.

Ohgi merely sighed at Tamaki's idiotic notion. "If we attack them," he replied, "then everything will begin once more. This is an order Tamaki." Ohgi had gotten serious and was using his Leader voice. "We are going to lay low and disappear until everything blows over."

"Why do you say that Ohgi?" Inoue asked of their leader.

"If I learned anything from Naoto, it was to trust your instincts." Ohgi shrugged before he continued. "I don't know why, but I get the feeling that something really big is happening right now, and I don't want any of us getting caught up in it."

Yoshida then asked Ohgi, "What do you think it is?"

Ohgi shook his head as he said, "I don't honestly know. But my gut is screaming at me that we need to disappear for a bit." He then turned and looked back at Kallen. "I think that you should go back to school for a while Kallen."

"Buy why?" Kallen couldn't believe what he'd just told her to do. "I'd much rather stay with you guys than go back _there_." Kallen's words were filled with disgust as she remembered her fake life as a sickly schoolgirl.

Ohgi dismissed the notion of her staying with them with a wave of his hand. "It's the safest place possible for you. They'd never look into one of their own upper-class schools for one of us. Besides," he continued with a smile, "you know that Naoto would tell you the exact same thing."

Kallen gritted her teeth because she knew that Ohgi wasn't wrong. "I can't deny that. But still…" she paused as she thought of how to finish her attempt to debunk his decision. "It's not fair to you guys," she finished. But Kallen knew that wouldn't dissuade Ohgi's choice for her to go back.

"You really don't have to worry about us," Ohgi assured her. "You have to go since all of us can't," Ohgi told her with a smile still on his face.

The rest of her nakama in the resistance group all told her pretty much the same thing. "Go back and try to enjoy your time at school."

"Alright," Kallen resigned. "I'll go back to the settlement. But we'd better stay in contact or I will come and find all of you."

Ohgi nodded while his gentle smile remained on his face. "We'll call you every day and tell you the current situation," he reassured her. He then placed his hand on her shoulder and continued. "But please try and have fun while you're back at school. Your school days are fleeting, and you need to make some more friends. For Naoto's sake as well as your own."

Kallen couldn't bring herself to say anything to the contrary. "Why is it you always know just how to make me do something you know I despise?" she asked of her brother's childhood friend.

"I simply tell you the truth. That's really all there is to it," Ohgi told her.

Kallen sighed. "Okay. I'll take the west subway tunnels back into the Settlement. Is it clear?"

Yoshida nodded. "The Britannians are retreating and appear to be massing together in the South. So long as you stay hidden and don't try and gather attention, you shouldn't be noticed."

Kallen nodded to Yoshida. She then looked at everyone in the resistance cell one last time and said, "Well I guess I'm off then. Nobody go and die before I get back. That goes double for the useless Tamaki over there."

Kallen waved as she turned around and started walking westward. The last sounds she heard from the Japanese Resistance cell her brother founded were Tamaki's feeble attempts to insult her.

Kallen stopped walking for a minute and smiled as she stared up at the sky.

"Something big, huh?" she said to herself.

* * *

Lelouch and C.C. had just entered Ashford Academy's Student Council building.

It had been a few hours since he'd killed his brother for the second time.

"I'm going to check on Nunnally," Lelouch told C.C. "You remember the way to my room?"

"Of course I do. But will _you_?" C.C. emphasized.

Lelouch was confused at her question. "What are you saying?"

"Don't give me that. You know full well what I mean." C.C.'s golden eyes were filled with emotion as she stared deeply into his violet ones.

_What is she implying?_ he asked himself. "I really don't know what you mean C.C. Of course I know the way to my room. Do you think that I went and forgot that?"

"That's not what I'm concerned about," she grumbled back at him.

Lelouch didn't comprehend what C.C. was so worried about. "Then why are you acting this way?"

C.C. simply looked away and pouted, her lips quivering.

_This woman makes no sense. One minute she's the most erotic tease in existence, and the next she's worried about something and refuses to inform me of what it's about._

Lelouch sighed and let his shoulders droop, removing the tension that he'd been harboring since re-arriving in Shinjuku.

_Could that be it?_ A thought had entered into his mind, a possible explanation for her behavior. Lelouch felt as if a light bulb had just appeared over his head as he realized the meaning behind C.C.'s actions. He chuckled as the revelation dawned on him.

"What's so funny?" C.C. turned back around and asked him.

Lelouch couldn't stop himself from chucking at his realization. "You are," he told her.

"What's so-"

Lelouch interrupted her by bringing his lips down and covering hers with his own. He pulled her closer and held the kiss until his chest was burning from the lack of oxygen.

Both of them gasped for air as their lips parted, a small, thin, line of saliva connecting them.

"I'm not going to let you sleep alone, C.C." Lelouch layered his words with the emotions running rampant in his head and chest. "I promise you."

"Well, then." C.C. seemed rather happy to hear those words. "I'll be eagerly awaiting your return Lelouch." She then licked the line of saliva off of his lips with a seductive look on her face.

Lelouch's cheeks turned red at her actions. _How does she do this to me?_ he wondered as she walked off towards the bed the two of them would be sharing tonight.

Lelouch couldn't help himself as he watched her walk away. His eyes were unable to tear themselves from the gorgeous green hair, the slender figure she possessed, her alabaster skin, and her perfectly shaped hips as they swayed while she walked.

Lelouch felt a trickle of blood from his nostril appear as his mind began to wonder at what secrets were awaiting for him to discover between the sheets.

He shook his head so violently that he heard his neck crack in order to bring himself back. _I will find out later,_ he told himself. _Right now, Nunnally comes first._

Lelouch forced himself to turn away from the gorgeous woman walking off towards his room and began to walk to Nunnally's room at the other end of the hallway.

"Sayoko should be gone by now," he said to himself as he walked. "So Nunnally should be in bed and asleep at this hour.

His footsteps echoed off of the Student Council Building's walls as his heels struck the tile flooring.

"Ah. The familiar peace and quiet," Lelouch reveled in the silence. "Unfortunately, this place becomes quite lively and loud once Milly decides to show up." Lelouch smiled as he recalled all of the fun times that he'd shared with the Ashford Student Council. He remembered all of the laughs that they'd all gotten from Rivalz's failures to get Milly go out with him. He remembered all of the enjoyable moments that Shirley had worked so hard for him to have. He remembered all of Milly's antics that would always get on his nerves, but he was forever grateful for her idea of Cupid Day. "Probably the best idea you ever had," he said out loud.

Lelouch then came back from his trip down Memory Lane as he realized that he'd arrived at Nunnally's bedroom door at the end of the hall.

"Nunnally," he whispered as he lightly knocked on the door to confirm whether or not his sister was awake.

No answer came from the other side, so he opened the door quietly and slowly let himself in. As he entered, the familiar scent of violet rushed into his nostrils. He savored every breath as he snuck into Nunnally's room.

His sister's room was basically the same as his. It had a couple of dressers for her clothes, a fairly large closet, a bathroom for her personal use, and a simple bed. The only difference was that everything that was required to be in her room was wheelchair-accessible.

Lelouch quietly walked over to Nunnally's bedside. She was wearing her yellow nightgown. The young, crippled, and blind princess was sleeping soundly, but her breathing was a little fast for her sleeping state.

_She seems to be enjoying her dream._ Lelouch noticed the grin on her face as she slumbered.

He grabbed the edge of the Comforter on her bed, which had slipped down and was lying on her stomach. _You must be freezing,_ he thought as he brought the Comforter back up in order to cover his little sister's entire torso.

Nunnally seemed to notice the change in temperature, as her breathing slowed down and came to rest at an appropriate deep, slow pace. Her grin turned into her gentle smile as she tried to snuggle with an imaginary figure lying down beside her.

Lelouch couldn't help but smile at her actions while she slept.

_Maybe I should get her a plush-toy as well? _he wondered. _C.C. would kill me if I gave Nunnally her darling Cheese-kun, but I'm sure that I could find another plushy for Nunnally somewhere._

Lelouch leaned over his sister and gently kissed his sister's forehead.

"I love you, Nunnally." Lelouch barely whispered his words so that he didn't wake her from her dream.

He then stood himself back up and quietly walked back to the still-open doorway.

Lelouch slowly grasped the doorknob and began to softly shut the door.

He froze just before he'd shut it completely.

"I love you too, big brother."

It was only a whisper, but that was definitely Nunnally's voice.

Lelouch couldn't bring himself to move. His entire being shook as he realized what he'd heard.

_The first words I hear from my sister…_ his thoughts trailed off.

Lelouch felt a single tear fall from his right eye.

"Thank you, Nunnally," he whispered back.

He then felt energy return to his body's limbs and quietly closed the door to his sister's bedroom.

Lelouch turned away from the door, walked fifteen paces away from Nunnally's bedroom, leaned his back against the wall, and slid down the wall until he was sitting on the tile floor.

He covered his face with his hand as tears began to fall down his face. His tears continued to stream down his face and fell off of his chin onto the floor. His tears forming a puddle beneath him was the only sound in the hallway.

Lelouch only sat there, crying, for what seemed like an eternity before he was able to lift his face and stare out of the grand window that was before his eyes.

"The moon is nearly full tonight," he said aloud to himself. "It's almost as beautiful as…"

Lelouch's eyes widened as he realized what he was about to say.

He slowly chuckled at his own revelation. "I guess I really do love her," he said to himself. "But I won't tell her, not yet at least."

Lelouch straightened his legs and stood up. After he'd stood up from his crying position, he started walking back to where his next journey was waiting for him.

"I've been waiting," C.C. said to him once he started opening up his own bedroom's door.

"I know. I know." Lelouch had his eyes shut as he closed the door behind him.

He turned around to face C.C., but the sight before him forced his next words to remain caught in his throat.

There, before him, lay C.C. without a shred of cloth covering her alabaster skin. Her emerald hair hugged her sensual figure closely and helped to further enhance her already erotic posture and natural beauty.

"Do you like what you see?" C.C. seductively asked him.

Lelouch only nodded since he wasn't able to form any words at the moment.

"Then come and join me." C.C. seductively motioned with her slender finger for him to come closer and lay with her.

Lelouch gulped as he moved his legs, which felt as though they were made of lead, towards the perfect figure which lay on his bed.

"Now then." C.C. grabbed his shoulders as he approached the edge of his bed and pulled him down on top of her. "Let's enjoy ourselves this time."

**Part 1 End**


	4. Zero's Rebirth: Chapter 3

**Part 2: Zero's Rebirth**

* * *

**The arch mage read what had been written, then read the correction. When he stood up, his black robes whispering about him as he said, "This alters time."**

**"This alters nothing," Astinus said coolly. "She came in his stead, that is all. An even exchange. Time flows on, undisturbed."**

**"And carries me with it?"**

**"Unless you have the power to change the course of rivers by tossing in apebble," Astinus remarked wryly.**

**Raistlin looked at him and smiled, swiftly, briefly. Then he pointed at the globe.**

**"Watch, Astinus," he whispered, "watch for the pebble! Farewell, Deathless One."**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Lelouch felt the morning sun burning his eyelids as he awoke from his slumber.

He slowly, gingerly cracked open his eyes, noticing that his bedroom curtains were left open for some reason. His open curtains were the reason that the sun's beam had started to burn his eyes. He finally opened his eyes fully, revealing his violet irises to the world once more. Lelouch raised his right wrist over his eyes in order to shield his sensitive eyes from the burning sunlight.

After he'd shielded his eyes he sat upright in his bed, his bed's large, black comforter sliding down his bare chest until it came to rest on his thighs. Lelouch followed that by looking over at his alarm clock. In neon purple it shone brightly as "5:53 A.M."

"Why on earth am I up so early?" he asked himself as his gaze left the alarm clock and went back to his bedroom's window. "My alarm isn't supposed to wake me up until 6:31. No point in wondering about it, I guess," Lelouch said to nobody in particular as he shrugged. He then fell back until the back of his scalp hit his unusually comfortable pillow.

As he raised his bed sheets to cover him once more, Lelouch noticed something unusually warm to his left.

Lelouch turned on his side to face whatever it was that was the heat's source, hidden underneath his covers. He ventured his hand underneath the covers, towards the source of the great heat. His hand slowly inched closer and closer while it remained under his bed's sheets. As his hand got closer to the lump under his sheets that appeared to be the source, he felt his fingers and palm continue to further warm. That confirmed it for him; he was reaching towards the source of the foreign heat in his bed.

Lelouch couldn't stifle his surprise as his hand made contact with the supposed heat source. It was unusually soft, yet had a firmness to it as well.

"Iyan!" A small cry came from beneath the mound of bed sheets to his left.

He quickly removed his sheets so that he could discern what this foreign object in his bed was.

What lay before him was lustrous green hair, which sat atop a stunningly beautiful young woman's face. Lelouch slowly continued to remove the covers from the gorgeous woman whom happened to be in his bed with him. As he removed the bed sheets from her, he revealed some voluptuous womanly curves and an ample bosom which his palm was still groping.

The woman, whom could only be called astoundingly gorgeous, opened her eyes, revealing a pair of even more beautiful golden eyes to him.

"Already, Lelouch?" the woman asked him. "You mean to tell me that you weren't satisfied last night?"

Lelouch then felt it click in his head that his hand was still firmly grasping her left breast, and quickly removed his palm from the unusual softness which was her breasts.

_Last night,_ Lelouch wondered. _Did we-_ Lelouch didn't finish his thought in his head. Images flooded his mind of the previous night's exploits with the green-haired beauty.

Lelouch couldn't help himself. A grand smile covered his face as he remembered everything. Every vivid detail of their bodies intertwined, every moan, every single thrust, everything.

"You were amazing, C.C." he complimented her after he'd recalled their 'fun' last night.

"You weren't bad yourself," she replied back. C.C. then arched her back like a cat as a yawn escaped from her perfect lips. She lay back down and appeared to purr a little.

"This may very well be the first time I am unable to describe any experience with real words. I may end up having to make up a few if you ask me to describe it to you." Lelouch didn't know why, but his grin just refused to disappear from his face.

C.C. then sat up, her breasts both bouncing freely as she did, and stretched her arms over her head. "I was actually a little bit shocked, Lelouch," she told him as she lowered her arms. She made no attempt to hide herself from his wandering eyes. To Lelouch, it felt like she was showing herself off to him again. "Your initial lasted longer than I'd ever even heard of before," she continued as she threw her legs over the edge of the bed. "You are also surprisingly 'gifted.' You also stood ready and willing to go quite a bit longer than I'd expected you would."

Lelouch's grin unhindered, he felt his cheeks burn a little as she complimented his apparently unforeseen ability.

"You realize that that stupid grin reveals far more than you think it does," she told him. She then crossed her legs and threw her hair back behind her shoulders.

Lelouch shrugged. "I can't help it," he replied. "This thing just doesn't want to go away." He paused for a second before he finished. "But I don't know if I really want it to disappear."

C.C. sighed and then stood up from the bed, her breasts bouncing freely as she did. She then walked over to Lelouch's closet, her lengthy green hair swaying with her marvelous figure as she did.

Once she reached his closet, she reached in and grabbed one of his white, long-sleeve, button-down shirts. She removed the shirt's hanger and threw the hanger back onto the closet's floor. C.C. then slid her slender arms into her new shirt for the morning.

Lelouch merely marveled at the piece of artwork that existed and moved before him. _Why didn't I ever try this before?_ he wondered to himself as he watched the immortal steal one of his undershirts.

C.C. threw her hair back once more after she had put on Lelouch's shirt since parts of her flowing, emerald hair had ended up caught between her back and the shirt she'd claimed. "Well," she began after turning back and looking at Lelouch. "Are you going to get dressed, or do you intend to surprise your class with your birthday suit?"

Lelouch looked down at himself after her query. He then realized as he looked down that he had nothing on his skin aside from the hair growing on it.

He nearly panicked as he fell over from attempting to conceal his little friend that resided between his thighs.

C.C. softly giggled at the sight of Lelouch's face burn so much that he thought that steam was coming out from his earlobes. "Really Lelouch?" she said through her giggles. "Modesty is the very _last_ thing you have to worry about with me," she finished after her giggles had died down.

Lelouch felt his face and heart calm back down after she'd reminded him of that little detail. "I guess that you're right," he told her. "After everything that the two of us did together, modest isn't really needed between us, is it?"

"Nope," she affirmed as she giggled again. "I'm about to go and enjoy a nice shower. Care to join me?" she suggested with a playful wink.

Lelouch shook his head. "I must still be spent," he informed her. "It refuses to respond even to the perfect sight before me."

"Too bad," C.C. feigned disappointment at that. "Then again, eight times would be pushing it. Even for professionals," she playfully said to him.

"I'd be surprised if it even works at all for a few days after how much we both 'enjoyed' last night together." Lelouch's words sounded playful, but inside of him, he was dead serious. _How in the hell did I even manage to _do _that?_ he silently wondered as he thought back to last night.

"You don't have to worry," C.C. assured him. "I just happen to know a few 'tricks' you see."

"What _are_ you, woman?"

C.C. smiled as his words hit her ears. "That's a refreshing change from 'witch,'" she told him. "It's just that I'm simply experienced, is all." C.C. playfully poked her tongue out at him as she finished.

Lelouch stood up from the bed he and the immortal beauty were going to be sharing together for quite a long while and walked over to his closet. He grabbed his spare Ashford Academy black and gold male student uniform since his main one was in tatters due to his antics in Shinjuku once more. Lelouch continued to rummage in his closet in search of another undershirt that he could wear to class.

"She didn't," he said worriedly as he slowly turned.

Lelouch finished turning around and his eyes noticed the shirt that C.C. had been wearing a few moments earlier was hanging on his desk chair. C.C. had since left in order to enjoy her shower.

"She did," he realized. _Rivalz is going to eat me alive if he finds out._

Lelouch heard the sound of his bathroom's shower running.

He then felt his lips' corners turn upwards and form his devious, devilish grin as a great idea for his vengeance on the immortal woman spawned inside his brilliant mind.

Lelouch quickly got into his Ashford uniform, which was now exuding C.C.'s scent. _Smells like clovers,_ he thought after he sniffed his shirt.

Lelouch then confirmed that the shower was still running.

"I'd better leave this here," he said to himself as he laid his debit card on his desk. "She'd murder me once I got back if I did this _and_ decided to keep her from ordering her precious pizza."

Lelouch quietly walked over and opened up his bathroom's door. He snuck in while trying not to make a sound. He then looked over towards the frosted glass shower stall.

_Good,_ he thought to himself so that C.C. wouldn't be able to hear him. _I guess that her laziness at accomplishing anything quickly is playing into my hands with this._

Lelouch was laughing diabolically on the inside as he continued to quietly creep over towards the object which will allow him to get his revenge on the immortal woman.

"Is that you Lelouch?" C.C. had noticed him. "I'll be out in a minute. I'm almost done."

Lelouch cursed silently at being noticed before he'd reached his objective. "You needn't worry about it," he told her as he continued to inch towards his goal. "I was actually about to go have breakfast with Nunnally. I wanted to tell you that I left my debit card on the desk for you so that you can order your pizza."

"Well it seems that you do care," C.C. said to him from behind the frosted glass. Her figure then turned and noticed where Lelouch was standing. "DON'T YOU DARE!" she screamed at him.

Lelouch let his diabolical laugh leave his throat and then pressed the lever down so that his revenge could be complete.

"FLUSH!"

C.C. squealed and crouched down behind the frosted glass as the shower went from a pleasantly warm stream, to freezing cold in an instant.

"That's for knowing what you did," Lelouch told her as he decided to bolt from the bathroom before she could gather herself and give chase.

"YOU'RE DEAD WHEN YOU GET BACK!" C.C. was shrieking as he closed the bathroom door behind him.

Lelouch then let out a deep, slow breath as he kept his back against the bathroom door he'd just shut.

"Well that was fun," Lelouch said to himself as he stood up straight from blocking the door. "It'll probably be a good while before she cools down from her murderous streak."

Lelouch then exited his bedroom and walked down the hallway towards the dining room that he, Nunnally, and Sayoko all shared.

"Is that you big brother?" Nunnally asked as she heard the dining room's door open with a hiss.

"It is." Lelouch then felt his loving smile appear on his face as he gazed at his little sister. _How long has it been since I was able to truly smile like this?_ he asked himself. "Good morning Nunnally, and to you as well Sayoko.

"You're up early my lord," the Japanese maid/ninja said to him.

Lelouch waved his hand before him as he told Sayoko, "You know what my feelings towards you calling me that are. I believe that you have to earn that title, and I've done nothing at all for you to say that." _Not yet, anyways,_ he quietly added.

"I understand." Sayoko nodded as she gave a traditional Japanese bow.

"But Sayoko's right," Nunnally piped up. "You usually aren't out of bed until at least seven. What's the occasion?" she asked her brother.

_If only I could say,_ Lelouch thought as he stared at his sister. "I just went to bed a little earlier than usual last night," he lied. It pained him to have to lie to his sister again.

"Is that why you weren't at dinner last night?" the crippled princess asked of her older brother.

Lelouch shook his head. "No, that's not why I wasn't able to eat dinner with you last night," he informed Nunnally. "I happened to get separated from Rivalz yesterday around the Shinjuku ghetto and the military decided that they wanted to keep me for questioning."

Nunnally giggled. "I told you to stop skipping classes to go and gamble, or it would get you sooner or later."

"You were right," Lelouch told his sister. "It did catch back up with me yesterday. I probably won't be gambling again for a little while."

Lelouch walked over and hugged his blind and crippled little sister. Nunnally immediately returned the embrace.

"Why do you smell like clovers?" Nunnally had noticed the unusual scent of the green-haired woman hiding in his room.

_Damn. I forgot to put on the cologne before I left,_ he realized. Lelouch quickly came up with a believable explanation for the foreign scent on him. "It's a new body wash that a friend of mine recommended. Do you think it smells good?"

Nunnally looked as though she was pondering about whether to accept his cover story as the truth or not as her forefinger came up and pressed her fragile chin.

Nunnally then shifted to where, if she was able to, she and Lelouch would be looking directly eye-to-eye. "You're lying Lelouch," she said matter-of-factly.

Lelouch felt himself panic just a bit that his secret lover would be revealed after just one night. _She is quite astute, but I hope that it's just her gut. _"What do you mean Nunnally?" he asked.

Nunnally wagged her finger side-to-side as if she was a mother scolding her child. "That's your clothes that smell like clovers, not you."

Lelouch felt his breath catch in his throat as she figured out where the smell exuded from so quickly. He couldn't bring himself to tell her anything to the contrary either. He knew that they would just sound like flimsy excuses to his sister.

"I'd bet that you were with a girl last night," Nunnally pieced together. "What will Shirley do when she finds out? What do you think Sayoko?"

Sayoko smiled as Nunnally asked her. "I think that she'd become extremely jealous, go hysterical, and then panic."

Lelouch was the one panicking at the moment though. He quickly put his finger to his lips and told them to "SHHH!"

"But why, Lelouch?" his younger sister asked him in response. She looked like she was enjoying teasing her older brother with this.

"Can we just keep it a secret? Just between us?" he begged his sister not to reveal that he'd been with a girl.

"I will, but only if you let me meet her." Nunnally had presented her terms to buying her silence.

"Very well," Lelouch sighed. "I'd actually planned on having the two of you meet in a few days, but I guess that I'll introduce you to her at dinner tonight. Is that okay?" Lelouch couldn't believe it. _Beaten this easily. How?_

"I guess that is good enough. Very well. Sayoko and I won't tell Shirley about it." Nunnally appeared to be rather happy that she'd be able to meet her big brother's girlfriend.

"Please," Lelouch begged once more. "Also don't tell Milly or Rivalz. They'll probably notice the scent, but please back up my cover story."

"Okay," Nunnally nodded. "If they ask, Sayoko and I will tell them that it's a new body wash. Just like you tried to lie to me with."

"Please don't rub it in." Lelouch then let out the breath that he didn't realize he'd been holding. "Thank you Nunnally. Now can we get to enjoying our breakfast that Sayoko obviously worked so hard on."

Lelouch then sat down at the seat opposite Nunnally and enjoyed the Japanese maid and kunoichi's homemade cooking for the first time in over a full year. _It truly is amazing,_ he thought as he swallowed a piece of orange, laced with Sayoko's secret seasoning.

"That was perfect," Nunnally complimented their truly all-purpose maid's marvelous cooking as she finished her plate.

"Nunnally's right," Lelouch nodded. "You are the best cook that we've ever met, Sayoko."

Sayoko acknowledged her master's compliments with a traditional bow at her hips. "It was really nothing."

"Well, I've gotta be going." Lelouch then pushed his chair from the table and stood. "Milly's apparently got a _huge_ problem that requires all of the Student Council members to gather."

"What do you think it is?" Nunnally asked.

Lelouch shrugged like he didn't really know what the problem was. "If I had to guess…" Lelouch paused and acted like he was thinking about it in order to determine the problem. "I'd say that it would be the club activities budget. I remember a few of the Swim Club members were complaining about their budget."

"Doesn't every club?" Nunnally giggled as she playfully asked him.

Lelouch let out a single chuckle. "I guess that you're right again." Lelouch waved as he left and said to his sister, "Don't worry. You and her will meet at dinner, just like I promised."

"We'd better," Nunnally told him.

Lelouch heard the dining room door close behind him and walked towards the upstairs Student Council Office.

He opened the door and looked inside the barren room. "Hmm. Nobody's made it here yet," he said aloud to himself.

Lelouch entered the office and took his seat, right next to the assigned seat of his blue-haired friend, Rivalz. He then checked the clock that was across the room from him.

_Well, I am a little bit early,_ he noted.

Lelouch leaned back in his chair with his fingers interlocked behind his head and closed his eyes.

_I wonder what this time around will really be like,_ he silently wondered behind his shut eyes. _Rivalz will still be going at Milly with everything he's got to try and woo her over to him._ Lelouch smiled a bit as he recalled Rivalz's literally hundreds of attempts to get Lelouch's longtime blonde bombshell of a friend to just go on a single date with him. _I wonder just how I would fare with her._ Lelouch thought as he remembered Milly.

Lelouch heard the door to the office open from behind him and opened his eyes, bringing himself back to the reality before him.

"Oh. It's you Lelouch." The Student Council Secretary, Rivalz, was the first member of the Council to arrive after Lelouch.

"Yeah," Lelouch answered. "I was just eating with Nunnally when Prez sent out her distress signal."

"Speaking of distress," Rivalz said as he took his seat to Lelouch's left. "Just how did you make it out of the ghetto?" Rivalz sounded rather concerned for his friend.

Lelouch then recalled that the last time this Rivalz had seen him was when he'd fallen into Kallen's Resistance Group's truck.

Lelouch then began to recount the story that he'd prepared to tell his friend in order to explain what happened. "I stayed hidden until the terrorists had been gone for about ten minutes. After that, I was found by some soldiers and they took me into custody for questioning."

"Why'd they take you in?" Rivalz worriedly asked his friend. "I mean, you didn't _do_ anything."

Lelouch leaned back in his chair once more. "Well," he began. "I was dressed as a Britannian student, found in the ghetto, and was found close to a known terrorist site. What would you think if you were in their shoes?"

"I'd think you were skipping out on your duties as my Vice-President." Milly answered his question as she walked in. Shirley and Nina were following right behind her.

Shirley looked hysterical. "Lulu! Thank god you made it back. Are you hurt? Did they try to torture you?" Shirley asked her questions so quickly that she was short of breath.

Lelouch waved his hand in order to try and prevent Shirley from over-exerting herself. "No, no. Nothing like that," he assured his not-so-secret admirer. "They just asked why I was found in the ghetto. So I told them the truth. I told them that I was a passerby who came upon a wreck, so I went to see if anyone in the truck needed any help or medical attention. Then I was knocked off-balance when the truck started moving again and happened to fall into the back of the truck they were using."

"And you mean to say that they actually believed you?" Rivalz was absolutely eating up the fabrication.

"Well not at first," Lelouch told them. "But a few eye-witnesses corroborated my story and so they released me since they couldn't really pin anything on me after all."

"Thank goodness that you're okay Lulu," Shirley then sighed in relief

Lelouch nodded back to everyone. "Thanks for being so concerned everybody. I really appreciate it." He then turned towards his longtime friend, Milly. "By the way Prez. What was so important that you needed to use the distress signal I set up for you?"

Milly energetically clapped her hands together after his question. "Oh! That's right! We need to find a way to fix the club activities budget before the end of the day."

Shirley looked dumbfounded. "Why do we need to fix it?" she asked her President.

Lelouch sighed as he suddenly remembered Shirley's utter lack of any real intelligence. "Because it isn't balanced," he told her. He then glared at Milly. "I told you that it wasn't balanced two weeks ago Milly. Why did you decide to procrastinate so much?"

Milly playfully winked at her raven-haired old friend.

_Okay then,_ Lelouch though. He then teasingly blew the blonde bombshell of a woman a kiss.

Milly's face flushed at Lelouch's action. However, nobody other than the two involved parties happened to see the silent flirting between the two of them. Rivalz and Shirley had been staring blankly at the stack of papers laid out on the table before them, and Nina's eyes never left her computer.

Milly cleared her throat to help clear her reddened face and gather everyone's attention again. "We have an hour before classes start, so why don't we try and get this done before then," she told them.

"You know that we might actually be able to reach that deadline if you decided to actually help do the legwork, right?" Rivalz told the blonde woman built like a brick house.

About thirty minutes had passed and, through Lelouch's personal guidance, they were nearing their goal finally.

"Can't we just put this off until tomorrow," Rivalz groaned.

_Here it comes,_ Lelouch thought and plugged his ears with his fingers.

"GUTS!" Milly roared.

Rivalz grimaced as Milly's 'magic' reached his eardrums. "Are you trying that whole 'guts' spell again?" the blue-haired Secretary asked her.

"You know that magic doesn't exist, right Milly?" Lelouch probed.

"Actually, you've got me going Madam President!" Shirley was energetic as ever, flexing her arms as she told them.

Milly's lips slid upwards into a sly grin. "Supple _and_ willing. I like that," she told the orange-haired young woman.

Shirley, oblivious to what the lecherous president was really saying, replied with, "I work hard in my Gymnastics Club."

Lelouch couldn't help but grin as he remembered how the conversation went from here.

"That's not what I meant," the blonde bombshell told the oblivious young orangette. Milly's eyes slowly moved upwards as they took in Shirley's slender figure. "You're a ten. At least from what I've seen in the girl's bathroom anyways."

"Oh, ho." Rivalz leaned over the table and leered at the unfortunate soul that was Shirley Fenette at the moment.

Shirley crossed her arms in order to attempt to hide her breasts from the perverse stare of the blonde beauty. "What are you talking about you pervert?" Shirley demanded.

"She means that you're filling out in all the right places," Lelouch piped up, stealing Milly's line. Lelouch then admired Shirley's hourglass figure with his own eyes and said to her, "And I would have to agree with her on that."

Shirley's face turned scarlet after Lelouch had complimented her figure like that. "LULU!" Shirley sounded absolutely hysterical. "What-what-what are you saying?" she stammered in response.

Lelouch simply shrugged at her question. "Is it wrong to admire such a perfectly well-done piece of artwork?" he playfully teased her.

So much blood raced to the orange-haired girl's face that it appeared as if she would pass out from the embarrassment she was facing. Shirley was reduced to a stuttering mess, unable to piece together enough letters to make a coherent word.

Lelouch couldn't help but laugh at the sight as he stood up from the table. "The budget's balanced," he said to the stunned Milly as he put the stack of papers he'd been working on in the President's hands. "I'll see you guys in class then," he said as he walked out of the room.

Lelouch heard a chair fall over from inside the office.

"Shirley!" he heard Nina yell.

Lelouch then heard Rivalz's voice come from the office next. "Did… Did Lelouch just… flirt?"

Milly giggles were the last thing he heard as he walked away from the office.

Lelouch couldn't stop himself form smirking as he left the Student Council building. _Why didn't I do this last time?_ he wondered. _It's _so _much more fun to tease. Now I understand why C.C. enjoys doing it so much._

He was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice the short, crimson-haired young woman come around the corner and they both ran into each other. Both of them fell on the ground, the papers that she'd been carrying with her falling everywhere around the two of them.

"I'm sorry. I didn't see-"

Lelouch wasn't able to finish what he'd begun apologizing for.

_Kallen._

The sight of the young red-haired young woman enveloped all of his thoughts. He was temporarily in a daze at being able to see her once more.

Kallen was rubbing her bottom saying, "Ouch, ouch, ouch."

Lelouch quickly stood himself up and offered the beautiful half-breed his hand. "Here," he said to her.

Kallen's head tilted slightly and she asked, "Who are you?" Kallen was using her fake, sickly tone.

_I like you better when you're being yourself. Not when you pretend to be some invalid,_ he thought to himself while still extending his hand to her. Lelouch smiled. "I'm Lelouch Lamperouge," he introduced himself under his false identity. "I'm the Student Council Vice-President. It's good that you're back Ms. Stadtfelt.

"Do I know you?" she asked as Lelouch helped her to her feet.

Lelouch kept his warm smile as he told her, "It's been a long while, so I don't really blame you for not remembering me. We're in the same class." He then began to bend over and pick up the papers Kallen had been carrying with her before they'd bumped into each other.

Kallen realized what Lelouch was doing and quickly began to help the dark-haired youth collect her scattered papers.

"So are you feeling any better?" Lelouch asked her as he handed Kallen the rest of her papers that he'd collected.

Kallen nodded and then meekly said, "I'm sorry for not remembering who you were."

"You needn't concern yourself." Lelouch waved his hand before him to further emphasize his statement. "I'm just glad that you're back. I don't really blame you for not remembering me."

Lelouch wasn't sure about it, but for an instant it appeared as though Kallen's cheeks flushed red.

Lelouch didn't bother to think on it. He then motioned with his hand for Kallen to walk with him.

Kallen meekly nodded to his invitation and began to walk beside Lelouch as they walked across campus to their first class.

"So how was your time away?" Lelouch used his conversation-starter.

"Uneventful." Kallen responded with as little as possible.

Lelouch grabbed her shoulders and gently moved her out of the way as another group appeared not to notice someone walking directly towards them.

Lelouch noticed Kallen's cheeks tinge red as he let go of her.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" he asked her as they stopped outside of their first classroom. He then placed the back of his palm on her forehead like he was taking her temperature. "Your face is burning up."

Kallen shook her head to get his hand off of her. "I'm fine…" she whispered.

"Are you sure?" he asked her. He was enjoying this. "I can help you to the nurse's office if you'd like." Lelouch noted that Kallen's cheeks reddened further the more that he maintained contact between them.

"I said I'm fine!" Kallen snapped at him. She then realized that she'd gone out of character and quickly returned to her façade of a sickly girl. "Anyways, thanks for walking me to my class. I really appreciate it." Kallen bowed slightly, her large stack of papers clutched to her chest, to offer her thanks.

Lelouch laughed at the gesture. _You really aren't meant to be docile,_ he thought as she stood up. "Don't worry; this is my first class as well. So, if anything, we accompanied each other," he informed her.

"Accompanied each other?" Kallen seemed bewildered at his choice of words.

"Yes," Lelouch nodded. "I don't really know why, but I feel safer for some reason when you're around Kallen." Lelouch put on his warm smile again as he opened to doo to their shared classroom. "Ladies first," he said as he motioned with his hand for her to enter first.

"Thank you," Kallen thanked him for the action. "It's nice to have met someone as kind as you when I came back."

Lelouch continued to smile. "Thank you for the compliment, and I already told you that we've already met." Kallen seemed embarrassed that she'd already forgotten what he'd told her just ten minutes ago. "By the way, are you involved in any clubs?" he asked her, knowing full well what the answer would be.

Kallen shook her head at his last question. "No, I'm not. I'm not really able to join any clubs because of my health. I wouldn't really be able to participate in any club activities."

Lelouch shook his head. "That's no good," he told her. "A girl as pretty as you needs to be in at least once club."

Kallen was surprised at what Lelouch had just told her. "What did you just call me?" she asked him.

"Pretty," he said to her. "You really are quite attractive Ms. Stadtfelt."

Kallen's cheeks tinged red once more as Lelouch reiterated his earlier compliment to her.

Lelouch stamped the bottom of his fist on his open palm. "I have an idea," he told her. "Why don't you join the Student Council?"

Kallen seemed surprised at the notion. "I don't really know," she weakly replied as she averted her eyes.

"You don't have to say yes or no right now," Lelouch informed her. "Why don't I show you around the Student Council building after school? After that, you can tell me if you feel like joining or not."

She nodded after thinking about it for a moment. "I've got nothing planned. It can't really hurt to see if it's something I can join or not."

Lelouch turned and started walking over to his seat after her answer. He waved his hand to her as he was walking and said, "Deal. It's a date then."

Kallen's face looked like it was attempting to do an imitation of her hair. Her face flared crimson as soon as Lelouch had added on that extra little 'date' line.

Lelouch was inwardly laughing as he took his seat next to Rivalz, who still looked as though he was in shock from Lelouch's actions at the earlier council meeting. _That's something I rarely got to see last time,_ Lelouch thought to himself as he saw Kallen, still red-faced, take her seat on the other side of the room.

Rivalz had just noticed Lelouch presence beside him. The blue-haired young man then turned and asked his friend, "What came over you earlier?"

"What do you mean?" Lelouch was feigning ignorance over his very noticeable change in behavior.

"You know exactly what I mean." Rivalz moved his hand in front of him in a condescending manner. "You never flirt, least of all with Shirley. You've only ever been cold and distant to her. Next thing I know you're flirting so darn well that you even had Milly giggling." Rivalz leaned over. "What's going on Lelouch? Did you happen to get laid yesterday?" Rivalz asked him lecherously.

Lelouch acted like he was surprised at the very notion that he would engage in an action such as coidus. "Where did that come from?" he demanded of his blue-haired friend. _You are actually very close to the truth Rivalz,_ he silently added.

Rivalz then began to list out the changes that he'd noticed about his friend. "You've got an unusual air of confidence around you, you _actually flirted,_ and I happened to see both you and Ms. Stadtfelt over there walking together." Rivalz wagged his finger. "I also saw that little Ms. Stadtfelt seemed to have a bit of red on her cheeks while you were walking with her." He then slammed his palms on Lelouch's desk. "You got it on with the sick girl last night, didn't you," Rivalz accused.

_Not yet,_ Lelouch silently answered. He then sighed in disappointment at the poor young man before him who'd made such conclusions. If anything he pitied Rivalz for when Kallen happened to find out about his last accusation. "I happened to bump into her as I left the meeting," he began to explain. "I helped her find her way back to class since she hasn't been to school in a long time. She also came to school with a bit of a fever, so that might help explain why her cheeks were red."

"A likely story, Lelouch," Rivalz said with a teasingly condescending tone. "But I know the look of a guy who had a little bit of a 'fun' experience the night before."

Lelouch smirked as Rivalz stepped into his own trap. "Oh? How is that?" he shot back. "Did you happen to lose _your_ virginity since I saw you yesterday?"

Rivalz opened his mouth to reply, but he couldn't find the words to fire back at Lelouch. Rivalz closed his mouth and turned back around in his seat.

"Cocky bastard," Lelouch heard Rivalz mumble.

Lelouch couldn't help but burst out laughing at Rivalz at the moment.

Lelouch quieted his laughter after a moment and looked towards Kallen, who was eyeing him suspiciously. _So she already suspects, huh?_ he noted. Lelouch simply waved to her, a warm smile on his face.

Kallen's cheeks flushed red and she quickly turned back around to face the teacher.

_Using the recording worked fine last time. It should quell her suspiciousness adequately for the time being this time around as well._ Lelouch began to plot out what his next moves should be.

Lelouch continued to simply go through the motions of class as the next few hours slowly passed by.

"Hey Lulu!" Shirley called to him after the bell to signal the beginning of the lunch break rang out.

"What is it Shirley?" he asked her as he stood up from his desk.

"Um… Well…" Shirley seemed embarrassed and nervous about what she wanted to say. "I was just wondering if you had any plans for lunch," she finally spoke, her words revealing more to him than she really wanted.

Lelouch smiled to the orangette. "As a matter-of-fact," he said to her, "something just came up."

Shirley dropped her gaze and her shoulders drooped in disappointment. "Oh," she sounded despondent. "Well, I'm sorry for taking up your time." She then turned around slowly and began to drag her feet away.

"Hold it," Lelouch told her as he grabbed her slender wrist. "You're what just came up."

Shirley's, as well as everyone else's in the class, eyes bulged in shock at his words.

"Just let me grab my lunch and we can go eat together," Lelouch said to her with a gentle, warm smile on his face.

Shirley nodded to him, still unable to speak through her scarlet cheeks.

Lelcouh grabbed his lunchbox, covered Shirley's hand with his own (this turned the young woman crimson from neckline to hairline), and walked with her to a lone bench in the Ashford Academy's large courtyard.

Lelouch sat down on the bench. "Here," he said to her as he patted a section of the bench next to him, motioning for Shirley to sit down next to him.

Shirley, her head still red, nodded and somehow managed to find the seat next to Lelouch without steam coming from her beet red ears.

Lelouch felt the hundreds of eyes staring at him while he sat next to Shirley. Some were jealous of him; others stared because they still couldn't believe that Lelouch was showing human emotions.

_I guess that even I would be surprised at myself it I was the me from two years ago,_ he thought.

"Um… Lulu?" Shirley managed to squeak out a coherent word.

"Hmm? What is it Shirley?" he asked her.

Shirley was fidgeting in her seat next to him.

_She must not know what to think._ Lelouch grabbed one of the bananas that Sayoko had placed in his lunchbox and held it in front of the still-fidgeting Shirley next to him. "Want one?"

Shirley's face, somehow, reddened even further as she fell over backwards off of the bench they'd been sitting on.

Lelouch blinked in surprise. "Why'd she…" Lelouch then realized what he held. He started to cackle to himself as he realized that he'd unintentionally sent Shirley over the edge.

Lelouch looked down at the orange-haired beauty, still chuckling a bit. Her eyes were spinning, steam was fuming profusely from her scarlet ears, and she was babbling on incoherently about Lelouch's 'banana.'

He sighed at the sight. _If she's like this after that, then I wonder how she'd…_ Lelouch shook his head. "Hey, Shirley." He poked her burning cheeks with his finger.

Shirley simply continued to babble on about the 'banana' in nothing but garbled words.

Lelouch shrugged as he realized that he couldn't do anything to snap her out of her banana-induced daze. "She's gone," he said to himself as he stood up. "Oh, well. It was fun." He then picked Shirley up and bridal-carried her to the nurse's office.

(Shirley would awaken from her daze about an hour later. Milly immediately was over her, displaying to the orange-haired young woman HD photos of Lelouch carrying her as if they were a pair of newly-weds on their way to consummate their recent wedding. This teasing by the blonde bombshell made the orangette pass out once more due to too much blood rushing to her head.)

Lelouch returned to class after he dropped Shirley off with the nurse. The day began to creep by at a snail's pace once more.

"Finally!" Rivalz exclaimed as the end-of-the-day bell echoed throughout the school. Rivalz walked over to Lelouch's desk and asked his friend, "Got any plans lover-boy?"

"As a matter-of-fact I do," Lelouch retorted. "And with exactly who you're thinking of."

Rivalz's eyes widened in disbelief at Lelouch's admission. "I knew it!" Rivalz shrieked. "So you and Kallen have been-"

"He and I have been what?" Kallen interrupted the blue-haired youth as she walked over.

"I apologize for him Ms. Stadtfelt." Lelouch sighed before he continued. "Because of his own failing in his personal love life, he seems to think that he two of us are sleeping together.

Kallen's face turned red. "He what!" she screamed. She then turned and smacked Rivalz with the palm of her hand. "I barely even know Lelouch!" she was yelling. "Why would I do _that_ of all things with someone that I hardly even know?" Kallen demanded, losing her sickly façade for a moment as her anger got the best of her.

Rivalz appeared to be in shock at the sight of Kallen's fierce nature, as he was reduced to a blathering idiot at Kallen's fiery side.

_Not _that's_ the Kallen I remember,_ Lelouch marveled. _You really are better looking when you're violent._

Lelouch continued to inwardly laugh as Kallen continued to verbally pummel Rivalz with her accusations and demands.

A few moments passed, and Kallen had finally finished tearing Rivalz a new one for his false assumptions. She then quickly reverted over to her sickly persona. This quick change in attitudes left Rivals more confused than anything as he left, his head hanging from receiving Kallen's verbal wrath.

"I'm sorry about that," Kallen apologized to Lelouch for screaming so much at his friend.

"You shouldn't," he assured her. "I thought that you looked cute when you were scolding him. If only your health wouldn't worsen, I think that it'd fit you better," Lelouch said to her, a smile on his face.

Kallen blushed a bit at that. "Yeah, if only I wasn't so sick," she mumbled. Her cheeks quickly returned to their usual complexion. "I think that you promised to show me the Student Council building."

"I did," Lelouch nodded. "Just let me get my things and I'll show you around."

Lelouch quickly gathered up his school equipment and then began to escort the red-haired actress. He showed her every room in the building-minus his and Nunnally's private rooms- and explained to her the purpose of each room they had. He explained the purpose of the Student Council, what events they usually plan, and gave her a brief description of each member position's personal responsibilities. He decided to end the tour in the ballroom.

"…And this is the ballroom," he told her as they entered the large room. "Our President had it built so we have a place to house all of our dances and parties that she plans," Lelouch explained to Kallen.

"Looks rather nice," she admired. "Are there any real perks to joining the Student Counil?"

Lelouch grinned. _There it is._ "There are actually quite a few." Lelouch paused briefly before he continued. "We have access to the school on a level even the teachers don't really have." He then leaned over and whispered to her like he was telling her a grand secret, "But my favorite would be the underground exit tunnels."

Kallen's eyes widened as the realization dawned on her about all the uses she could have for the escape tunnel he'd just mentioned.

Lelouch leaned back to where he was standing straight and began. "I'm sure that you've heard about me gambling during school hours. Yet no teachers have ever caught me sneaking off of campus before. _That_ is the reason why I haven't been caught." Lelouch could see Kallen's sapphire eyes sparkle as he revealed his private use for the tunnel.

"Oh. There you are Lelouch. And you brought Kallen with you." Milly came into the ballroom with an apron on while she was pushing a trolly covered with food.

Lelouch cocked an eyebrow at the sight of Milly entering the ballroom just like in his memories. "What are you doing here Madam President?" he asked the blonde woman.

Milly playfully giggled. "Didn't you know? I thought that's why you brought her."

_This isn't how it went last time,_ Lelouch noted. _Milly didn't induct Kallen until tomorrow. Has the time stream been accelerated?_ Lelouch slapped his forehead to make it seem as though he'd forgotten something obvious. "Now I remember," he told Milly. "You planned on letting Kallen into the Council anyways."

"Huh?" Kallen was wondering just what was going on, because it appeared as though she was at the center of it all.

Milly energetically clapped her hands together. "You guys can come in now!" Milly yelled towards the second floor landing of the ballroom.

"Coming Madam President!" Shirley called back.

"On our way Prez!" Rivalz exclaimed next.

Kallen winced when she recognized that second voice. She then leaned over and quietly asked Lelouch, "Is he really a Council member too?"

"Yeah," Lelouch sighed. "Don't worry though, he's harmless. Now that you set him straight, I doubt he'd make any similar assumptions for a long while."

"He'd better not," Kallen growled.

"By the way, I'm Milly. Student Council President." Milly extended her hand to Kallen. "Nice to meet you Ms. Stadtfelt."

Kallen took the blonde's hand in turn. "Likewise. But if we're going to be in the same club, you guys can just call me Kallen."

Rivalz, Shirley, and the reclusive Nina came down the ballroom staircase as Milly was extending her greetings to the newest council member and the three of them approached their new co-worker.

"Nice to meet you Kallen. I'm Shirley." The orange-haired girl, energetic as always, introduced herself to Kallen.

Rivalz was nervous and cautious since Kallen's fierce stare was still fresh in his mind from earlier. "I'm Rivalz Cardemone. The Secretary. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Kallen bowed at her waist and apologized to the blue-haired boy. "I'm sorry for going off like that earlier. It was just surprising to come back and already have rumors about me and someone else being an item."

"What's she talking about Rivalz?" Milly asked her admirer.

Lelouch chuckled and spoke up before Rivalz could dig himself a deeper hole with his answer. "Rivalz only got what he deserved. It wasn't anything that you need to worry about Prez."

Rivalz laughed nervously as he scratched his cheek after Lelouch saved his hide.

"I'm Nina," the young genius that would eventually create the F.L.E.I.J.A warhead introduced herself.

Kallen acknowledged the small girl's introduction with a nod. "Nice to meet you."

"Shirley, can you put this on the table for me?" Nunnally had just rolled in on her wheelchair.

"Oh, sure Nunna," Shirley accepted as she walked over to help out Lelouch's sister.

"This is Lelouch's little sister, Nunnally." Milly introduced Kallen to the crippled young girl.

"It's nice to meet you Ms. Stadtfelt," Nunnally's gentle voice soothing to the ears. "I'm still in the Middle School group, so I'm not able to become an official Student Council member just yet."

"That's okay," Rivalz told the crippled girl. "You're an honorary member in all our eyes!"

Lelouch noticed something strange about his sister, so he walked over to Nunnally.

"Is she the one?" Nunnally whispered to him.

Lelouch shook his head. He then whispered back, "No. I told you that you'd get to meet her at dinner. Don't believe Rivalz. I think he's just jealous about nothing because of you-know-who."

That elicited a few giggles from his younger sister. "He has been chasing Milly and continues to fall on his face."

"That he has." Lelouch smiled as he ended his brief conversation with his sister.

Lelouch then turned back around and faced the calamity that was Kallen's welcoming party.

He noticed that Rivalz had just pulled out a green bottle that was filled with a sweet, bubbling liquid. "Let's kick off this party already!" the energetic Milly-admirer exclaimed.

"Champagne!?" Shirley was flabbergasted at the presence of the slightest amount of alcohol.

Nina broke her usually silent nature and pointed out, "But we're on the Student Council. We really shouldn't."

"Aw, don't be such a stick in the mud." Rivalz teased the party poopers.

Lelouch smiled as he witnessed the scene play out once more. _And now the Champagne comes to me,_ he thought as he saw the green bottle fly towards him.

Lelouch inwardly smirked as he caught the bottle and purposely moved the bottle's cork towards Kallen.

_Now the fun starts._

"You're not getting away with it either Lulu!" Shirley raced over and pounced on Lelouch while trying to steal the bottle from him.

"POP!"

Kallen deflected the cork as it flew at her head. The Champagne then rained down on top of her head, coating her in the sweet liquid.

_Oh the sights I'm about to see._

* * *

Lelouch had just left his room after getting Kallen his red and black jacket-and-jeans combo.

C.C.'s laughter could still be heard through the door.

"She really enjoys seeing me squirm," Lelouch grumbled.

He had just told her about the deal he and Nunnally arranged at breakfast in order to buy her silence on the matter.

"I'll go," C.C. told him through her fits of laughter. "But I find it absolutely hilarious that you couldn't keep it a secret for even a single day."

"It's your damn fault, woman," he grumbled to himself as he'd reached the bathroom that Kallen was borrowing for her after-champagne-shower shower.

He heard the shower's water running. _She's in._ Lelouch grinned like a sly fox as he thought about slightly changing this experience.

Lelouch then knocked on the bathroom door.

"It's Lelouch," he called through the door. "I brought you some clothes to change into."

"You can come in. I've already drawn the curtain," Kallen answered from behind the door.

Lelouch entered and the door closed behind him. He then walked over the bathroom counter. _My God those curves are dangerous,_ he thought as he admired Kallen's silhouette on the curtain. He set down his clothes on the counter. "I brought you some of mine since Milly and Shirley's were too large."

"Thanks," Kallen said from behind the curtain. "That was fast. You went all the way to the boy's dorm?"

"Actually, I live here." Lelouch recounted to her why he was living in the Student Council building. "My little sister would have it pretty hard living off in the dorms. The principal of the school lets us stay here as a favor."

Kallen went quiet for a brief moment. Her slender hand slipped out from behind the shower curtain and pointed to the pink pouch she always carried around with her. "Can you hand me that pouch over there?" she finally asked.

_Now we dance once more._ Lelouch devilishly grinned as he grabbed the switchblade-concealing pink pouch. He reached his arm behind the curtain and it was forcefully grabbed by Kallen's strong hand. _Just like last time._ Lelouch couldn't shake the sense of déjà vu he kept getting at the scene.

"Were you the one from the radio yesterday?" Kallen demanded an answer.

_Three, Two, One._ Lelouch finished the countdown he had maintained.

The phone on the bathroom wall began to ring.

Kallen didn't loosen her grip on his wrist.

"If I don't answer it, someone will come," Lelouch told her, just like he did last time.

Kallen's figure nodded from behind the curtain.

Lelouch answered the phone and played his part just like last time. "Oh?" Lelouch handed the phone behind the curtain to Kallen. "He says that he knows you."

Kallen grabbed the phone from behind the curtain and began to listen to Lelouch's pre-planned recoding once more.

_Too easy, _he thought.

"Who are you and how did you arrange that ceasefire order?" Kallen yelled into the phone.

Lelouch turned his head towards the curtain in anticipation. _Four, three, two, and one._

The curtain slid open at Kallen's violent twist with the phone to her ear. Kallen didn't realize since she had her back to Lelouch all the while.

"Ceasefire order?" Lelouch acted innocent, just like he did last time. "Let me guess, you're talking about a game?"

"Uh, yeah." Kallen piggybacked on the provided cover-story. "Since I've been sick so much."

_My, those are probably bigger than Shirley's._ Lelouch was taking mental pictures of the nude woman before him.

Kallen turned around and her sapphire eyes met with Lelouch's violet ones. She appeared to not register what was happening for a moment.

When it clicked in her head, her eyes widened, her face turned a deeper red than her hair, and she began to shake in anger.

_This is gonna hurt,_ Lelouch winced as he saw Kallen's hand raise up.

Her hand was a blur as it was brought down heavily on Lelouch's left cheek.

The blow was so hard that it sent Lelouch over and he fell on his ass.

"Serves you right. Pervert!" Kallen closed the curtains behind her with a "Hmph!"

Lelouch quietly stood himself up and left the bathroom.

As the door hissed shut behind him, he brought his hand up and lightly brushed his stinging cheek. Lelouch noticed that his entire left cheek had a large, deep red handprint covering it.

Lelouch brought his hand back down from his face.

Remembering Kallen's excellent figure, her shapely hips, and her quite large breasts, only one thought remained in his head.

"That was so worth it."

Lelouch returned to the ballroom, where the rest of the Student Council and Nunnally were awaiting his and Kallen's return.

All of the Student Council members saw his stinging cheek, and they just nodded to each other. Lelouch saw Rivalz hand Milly what looked like a twenty pound note.

Kallen returned from her shower, dressed in the clothes Lelouch had given her to borrow, after another few minutes. The air around her was very icy, so Lelouch decided it would be better for his health to simply leave Kallen be for the moment.

After Kallen returned from her shower, Milly restarted the party. The Student Council continued to party for another few hours. The ballroom echoed with the laughter of all the young men and women gathered throughout the fun time they were sharing. After a bit, even Kallen left her icy shell and began to enjoy the fun with everyone again. Rivalz eventually decided it wasn't a real party unless they all had a Karaoke tournament. Lelouch fumbled the words of his song all throughout the three-and-a-half minutes of torture he was forced to endure, making everyone, even Kallen, laugh so hard that their faces all turned red due to lack of oxygen and tears appeared from their eyes because of the pain in their sides. Surprisingly enough, Kallen unanimously took home the blue ribbon for performance of a local pop-star's latest number-one hit. Kallen seemed embarrassed for some reason as everyone continually told her how good she was and that she should try and get a recording contract soon.

As the party finally came to its conclusion a few hours later, everyone was exhausted. Rivalz was sprawled out on one of the ballroom's tables, passed out from dancing too much. Nina thanked everyone for letting her join in, and excused herself to go work on her research project. Milly was carrying Shirley, who'd also partied to the point of complete exhaustion, back to her room. Kallen also thanked everyone for the best party that she'd ever been a part of, and took her leave as well. Lelouch roused Rivalz after everyone else left, and the blue-haired Secretary dragged his feet as he trekked back towards his room in the dorms. Then it was just Lelouch and Nunnally left in the large, spacious ballroom.

"It's about dinnertime, isn't it Lelouch?" Nunnally asked of her older brother.

"It most definitely is," Lelouch smiled as he spoke to her. "You go on ahead. I'll be right behind you."

"You didn't forget, did you Lelouch?" Nunnally accused him.

"Not at all," Lelouch replied nervously. "I've just got to go get her is all."

Nunnally nodded. "Just don't be too late, okay?" Nunnally told him as she rolled away and left him alone in the ballroom.

_I was hoping that you'd forgotten._ Lelouch couldn't believe that it hadn't even been one full day since he'd killed Clovis. "They say 'time flies,' but this has got to be the longest day of my life. And it's not even over yet!" he yelled as he pulled on his hair.

Lelouch then realized something. He let go of his long black locks.

"Wait. The timelines off. I knew it was already different, but the sequence of events is slightly different. If I remember it right, it was just after I'd fooled Kallen last time that they announced Suzaku's arrest. However, this time the events weren't linked. Granted it's the day before they arrested him, but something's definitely off already. I hope I'm only being paranoid about this, but still…" his thoughts trailed off.

Lelouch shook his head in order to focus on the task at hand.

"I can deal with that possibility after I tackle this dinner. I don't think that this foreboding premonition is going to be wrong, either."

Lelouch hung his head and began to trudge on towards his room to grab C.C. and head to his doom.

Lelouch opened the door to his bedroom, and his jaw hit the floor at the site before him.

"What are you _wearing_?" Lelouch screamed hysterically at the emerald-haired beauty hiding in his room.

C.C. had obviously decided to go out clothes shopping after Lelouch informed her of her meet-and-greet with Nunnally, as retail store shopping bags littered his bed.

C.C. was garbed in a classic, Japanese kimono. Her attire was a deep emerald green, accented with pink outlines that made it appear that the kimono had shamrocks embroidered into it with pink string. The outfit tightly hugged her figure and helped her to show off her dangerous curves. The kimono showed off very little skin, but it somehow only helped to enhance the immortal's natural beauty further.

C.C. tightened the kimono's pink sash around her waist. "Don't you like it?" C.C. twirled around as she finished asking him. "You did buy it, after all."

Lelouch was stunned at the piece of paradise parading itself before him. "It looks amazing C.C." Lelouch couldn't believe that those words fell from his mouth.

C.C. seemed genuinely happy at his words as her perfect lips formed a smile on her stunning face. She giggled like a schoolgirl for a second. "Thanks for being honest, Lelouch."

Lelouch quickly regained his senses after he shook his head. Where did you find something like that?" he asked her.

C.C. turned back to the pile of bags on his bed. She then rummaged through the large mound on his bed in search of the bag of the appropriate retailer. "Ah! Here it is." C.C. held up a red bag of a retail shop that specialized in traditional Eleven culture. "I found this here."

Lelouch placed his palm on his face, covering his eyes. "I don't even want to know how much that cost me," he said in disgust.

"Oh relax, will you." C.C. threw the red bag back on top of the mountain of retail bags on his bed. She then came up behind him and hugged him from behind, her hands gently pulling his chest towards her. "I saw your account balance. You really _are_ quite the gambler aren't you?" C.C. playfully whispered in his ear.

Lelouch felt a little pride well up in his chest, but he quickly pushed it aside for a later time. "Why'd you leave the Academy?" he demanded. "You know that Charles is still searching for you, don't you?"

C.C. playfully smiled as she separated from him. "And _you_ apparently forgot that I evaded him for the full year between the Black Rebellion and when I woke you up," she shot back without any malice in her voice. "Have a little faith will you." C.C. waved her hand in an expression of arrogance. "Besides," C.C. motioned to the mountain of retail bags on his bed. "After today, I won't have to leave until Narita."

Lelouch chuckled as a smile appeared on his face. "I guess that you're right. But why on earth did you get so much? Did you hate your prisoner's outfit so much?"

"I'm not a prisoner anymore," she replied with the true smile she only showed to him. "Besides," she continued after staring into Lelouch's eyes. "Would you like it if everywhere you walked your clothes rattled and clanked?" C.C. ended with a "Hmph!"

Lelouch cackled at her last response. "I guess not. But why are you dressed up so much? You met Nunnally last time, didn't you?"

C.C.'s cheeks turned red. She lowered her gaze in embarrassment. "I guess it's because Nunnally asked to meet me this time," she murmured.

Lelouch tilted his head at her statement. "You know that we're not royalty anymore right?"

"I know that," she mumbled. "You wouldn't understand, so can you just drop it?"

Lelouch shrugged. _She's probably right._ "Shall we formally introduce you to my sister, then?"

C.C. nodded in affirmation, her cheeks still a bit red. "Sure."

The two of them then left his room together and began to walk towards the dining room. Both of their footsteps echoed off the tile floors together as they walked side-by-side.

Lelouch noticed out of the corner of his eye that C.C. was fidgeting as they stepped closer to the dining room. _Is she nervous?_ Lelouch wondered as his and C.C.'s next step echoed off the walls.

"Kyah!" C.C. yelped in surprise as Lelouch grabbed her hand with his own.

_That was unusually cute of her,_ Lelouch noted to himself.

C.C. calmed down as she realized their connection and her face returned to its normal alabaster shade, which sparkled in the moonlight. C.C. rested her head gently on Lelouch's shoulder as they walked together.

Lelouch was completely surprised at her actions. He felt his cheeks tinge red, but since he had no idea how to react to her, he decided to just let C.C. rest her head as they walked together.

_This hallway seems unnaturally long for some reason._

"Hey, Lelouch," C.C. whispered from his shoulder.

"Hmm? What is it C.C.?"

Her hair blocked her face from Lelouch's view. "Thank you. For everything." Her voice sounded truly sincere.

Lelouch and C.C. stopped walking as they reached the dining room door. He then gently grabbed her chin and pulled her face to where he was staring directly into her golden eyes.

"You look great," Lelouch encouraged her as he gently smiled.

C.C. smiled her true smile and nodded. She reached for the door to open it, but she froze before she could.

Lelouch had stolen her lips once more.

"Now we can go in," he told her after their lips separated.

Lelouch then pressed the switch and the door hissed open. He then ushered C.C. into the most terrifying experience of her life.

* * *

Suzaku Kururugi was in the shower when he heard a knock on his bedroom's door.

"I'll be there in a minute," he called to the knocker. "I'm in the shower at the moment."

"Suzaku," Cecile Croomy's voice came from behind the door. "Hurry up, Margrave Gottwald asked to see you."

_Why does Lord Gottwald of the Purist Faction want to see me?_ he wondered as he wrapped his towel around his waist. "Let me get dressed real quick and I'll join you Ms. Cecile."

"Alright, just make it quick," Cecile told him. "Be sure to dress well. I'll escort you there once you're dressed and ready."

Suzaku hurriedly dried himself off, found his dress uniform, and changed into his uniform reserved for special occasions.

"Thanks for waiting for me," Suzaku thanked the azure-haired technician as he opened his bedroom door.

Cecile smiled her beautiful smile and nodded. "It wasn't a problem. By the way, Lloyd is in love with you right now."

Suzaku wondered at her meaning. "Just what are you saying Ms. Cecile?" he asked her.

Cecile hurriedly waved her hands before her as she answered, "It's not THAT!" Cecile cleared her throat and regained her composure. "It's just that Lloyd thinks of the Lancelot as his own child, and you used it to its near-maximum potential back in Shinjuku yesterday. Can you guess what your operational efficiency was?"

Suzaku shook his head. "I don't much really know. All I care about is preventing the loss of further life as much as possible."

Cecile gently chuckled. "I know that. You finished with an unreal percentage. The highest achieved in the simulators we made was sixty-five percent, and that was by one of the Glaston Knights we happened to borrow from Cornelia. Your efficiency at the usage of the Lancelot was at ninety-four percent Suzaku. You were nearly perfect, and you still had that wound in your side to deal with."

Suzaku was a little shocked at that. He then realized why Lloyd was so ecstatic after he'd returned yesterday. "No wonder Lloyd was jumping up and down after I got back."

"Mmhmm," Cecile nodded. "Lloyd couldn't help himself. He had visions of a wonderful future with you as the Lancelot's deviceor."

Suzaku couldn't stop the pride welling up in his chest. "Do you think that he'd be thankful enough for him to share his pudding with me?" Suzaku asked her playfully.

Cecile giggled. "I don't know if he's ever going to be that thankful to _anyone._"

Suzaku and Cecile were laughing together as the door to the Lancelot's hanger opened with a hiss.

"Suzaku Kururugi." The turquoise-haired leader of the Purist faction stated as the young Japanese man entered.

Suzaku immediately snapped to attention and saluted to the Margrave before him. "Yes, sir! Private Suzaku Kururugi reporting as requested, sir!"

"You're under arrest," Jeremiah stated flatly.

Lloyd, Cecile, and all the other technicians and engineers for the Lancelot collectively gasped.

"On what charges!" Lloyd demanded.

The Purist Faction's leader smiled as if he was a sly fox. "The murder of the Viceroy of Area Eleven and Third Prince of the Empire, Clovis la Britannia." Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald turned and looked at the stunned Suzaku. "Take him into custody!" he ordered of his loyal subordinates.

Suzaku was so stunned at the accusation that he couldn't resist as he was roughly forced to the ground and his wrists were covered in metal cuffs.

* * *

**A/N: **Welcome back everyone and a great "HELLO!" to those of you who are just now being introduced to my child here.

100 favorites. All I can say is just "WOW!" I never expected such a positive beginning reception. I honestly expected it to start off slowly until I at least reached Narita or Kyoto. Never in my wildest imaginations did I think that so many people would love my story enough to favorite it like all of you have.

The little story quote at the opening of the chapter is from the book "The War of the Twins." It's in the Dragonlance series, which I HIGHLY recommend to any avid fantasy reader.

Of all the chapter's I've written so far, this is definitely the longest one. It truly is the longest day in Lelouch's life. This one chapter was almost as long as the entirety of Part 1!

To all of you reviewers who are wondering when Kallen will be brought into the romantic fold, please remember the timeline. Kallen didn't start falling for Lelouch until around a year AFTER she found out he was Zero. And Zero hasn't even made his official debut yet. All I ask is patience. She will be brought in, but I can't tell you when. (It's a secret, and beta stay quiet about it.)

Thank you all for everything so far.

To all of you who've Favorited and/or Followed me and/or the story itself, this is for you. Every chapter is dedicated to those who love the story. I honestly hope that I can live up to your expectations. I hear your cheers whenever I write, and it drives me to nothing less than excellence. If it falls short, then I am depressed.

I'm done ranting now.

**Lelouch:** But I'm just beginning.

**dripley11:** Shoo. Back to your own universe. Don't you have to get back to your dinner with your precious little sister.

**Lelouch:** You're right! (retreats back through the hole between dripley11's computer and his universe)

Don't forget to review. As long as you don't leave spam, I will take your input into account.

THANK YOU ALL.


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Well I'll be a monkey's uncle. My baby here has hit over 10000 views! Thank you all so much!

* * *

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Lelouch turned off his alarm clock and rolled back over underneath his sheets. As he turned, his face was met with a wall of green hair. The hair tickled his nose and he sneezed from underneath the bed sheets.

C.C. rolled over after his sneeze and yawned, her slender hand covering her lips as she did. "Good morning Lelouch," she said to him after she finished her yawn. The immortal's golden irises shone brightly as the sunlight covered her beautiful face.

Lelouch smiled after her greeting. "Good morning to you too." He then asked her, "Sleep well?"

C.C. brought her hand up and lightly rubbed his left cheek while she remained under the covers. "Yes, I did." She then sat up and arched her back like she did yesterday, that unique green hair of hers clinging tightly to her curves. "I also had some great dreams," C.C. said to him as she turned her head back to the still lying-down Lelouch, her true smile on her lips.

Lelouch then followed suit and sat up as well, his small torso still nude, and he embraced the immortal woman before him in his bed. "I'm glad that your nightmares have finally stopped." Lelouch spoke with all of the emotions that were living in his chest.

C.C. turned her body around and wrapped her long arms around his small frame. "I am as well," she told him. "You know, it's thanks to you that they were pleasant for the first time in so long."

Lelouch's hand gently grabbed her chin and slowly lifter her face to where the two lovers were looking directly into each other's eyes.

He into hers.

Her into his.

Lelouch then wrapped C.C.'s lips with his own. C.C. then pulled him closer to her and the two of them held their kiss until both of their chests were burning, begging them to breathe.

As the two of them reluctantly separated their lips, both breathing heavily from the lack of air in their lungs, a single strand of saliva remained, connecting their tongues.

C.C.'s forefinger touched the end of the connecting line on Lelouch's tongue, thus removing the saliva strand from him. She then seductively licked the finger she'd broken their connection with.

Lelouch's cheeks flushed red at the gesture. C.C. playfully giggled as she saw him redden once more.

"You know," she teased him playfully. "You really look cute once you're embarrassed."

He quickly regained himself and replied with, "I have no idea how it is that you do that."

"Do what?" C.C. stuck her tongue out playfully as she stood from the bed, still nude from last night's after-dinner 'celebration.'

Lelouch was grumbling to himself as he stood up from his shared bed and quickly moved to his closet before C.C. could attempt to do what she did yesterday.

"You know full well what I mean, woman," he told her as he grabbed his completed school uniform from his closet.

C.C. merely waved off the accusation as she strutted herself into the bathroom. "Don't even _think_ about doing that again," she said to him before she shut the bathroom door. Lelouch then heard a 'click' as the bathroom door was locked from the inside.

"Aw, c'mon!" Lelouch groaned through the door. "You have no sense of humor."

No reply came as he heard the shower start.

_Oh, well._ Lelouch shrugged before he went back over to his bed and began to get dressed for class.

After he'd finished getting into his black and gold Ashford uniform, he went over and knocked on the bathroom door.

"I left my card on the desk for you," Lelouch called to C.C. through the door. "All I ask is that you don't go too overboard with it."

C.C. didn't reply to him, so he simply shrugged and left his room.

_Today was the day that Suzaku was arrested,_ Lelouch thought as he traversed down the Council building's hallway towards the dining room. _I'm glad that I changed the message to where Kallen, Ohgi, and the others will go to Tokyo Tower Friday at sixteen-hundred hours instead of saying tomorrow. So far, it appears that only the welcome party has changed dates. It would end up being quite a problem if the entire time stream had truly been accelerated._

Lelouch ate breakfast with Nunnally and Sayoko, both of whom promised to keep C.C. secret from everyone at last night's dinner. Nunnally had apparently taken a liking to her at the dinner, and Sayoko also appeared to not mind C.C.'s presence in his room so long as she didn't go overboard with anything now that the immortal had officially moved into his room.

After he'd finished breakfast and bid his sister good-bye for awhile he left to go to class.

As the day continued to slowly progress, Lelouch paid the minimal amount of attention necessary to his teachers as he continued to plot his next moves toward defeating both his father and uncle.

The announcement of Clovis' death and Suzaku's arrest came during the last class of the day.

_So Suzaku's arrest happened the same way as before,_ Lelouch noted as he witnessed the announcement. _Good. That means that I can use the same strategy as before with minimal changes._

Lelouch couldn't help but grin like a fox as he returned to his room after the school day had ended. Milly apparently didn't need the Council for anything today.

"You look happy," C.C. said through a mouthful of pepperoni Pizza Hut Pizza.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Lelouch scolded her as he sat down next to her on his bed.

C.C swallowed what was in her mouth. "I know how to have good manners," she pointed out. "Didn't I prove that to you last night? I mean, I was dining with the Britannian Empress herself before V.V. decided to attempt to assassinate Marianne."

Lelouch felt a light go off in his head at the mention of his and Nunnally's mother. "That reminds me," he began. "Aren't you and Marianne able to communicate directly mind-to-mind right now?"

"We are," C.C. confirmed. "But only so long as I decide to maintain the connection." C.C. waved her empty hand as she spoke to him. "I told her and Charles earlier today that I no longer wanted to be a part of their plans, and then I severed the connection between us permanently."

Lelouch shook his head slowly after she finished telling him that. "Bad call," he told her flatly.

C.C. cocked an eyebrow as she actually put her slice of pizza down to address him. "Why do you say that?" she prodded. "I only spoke with Marianne last time because I intended to try and use the Sword of Akasha with them."

"I say 'bad call' because we don't know how this change will affect what's to come," Lelouch pointed out. "You also had the unique ability to be a double-agent for me and be able to keep tabs on both Charles and Marianne for me."

C.C. merely shrugged in indifference at his reasoning. "I don't really care about that. It shouldn't really change much for now."

Lelouch rubbed his forehead twice in frustration after her indifferent statement. "We don't know how Charles will react to your sudden change in behavior," he told her. "He could very well ramp up his search for you, thereby making it more difficult to move around. Tell me, do they know that you're in Area Eleven?"

"Because of Clovis' experiments on me," C.C. shuddered at the mention of Code-R. "I wasn't able to talk to Marianne for a few years. She had no inkling where I was until I contacted her after you'd been given your Geass. So, they don't know I'm in Area Eleven. No."

Lelouch sighed in relief as he felt a great weight lift from his shoulders as she told him that. "You have no idea how many potential problems that prevents. I about panicked when you told me you'd severed the connection. However, Charles will still try and find a second code in order to activate the Sword of Akasha."

"That he will," C.C. nodded. "So V.V. will be preoccupied for a good while using the order to find another code."

Lelouch was a little confused. "Is V.V. the only code-possessor in the Geass Directorate?"

"Ever since I left it to him," C.C. confirmed as she picked her piece of pizza back up.

"So the other two code possessors aren't involved with the order after all." Lelouch felt another weight lift from his shoulders as he realized that. "That also helps out tremendously," Lelouch stated after a brief pause.

"It means that the plan to activate the Sword of Akasha and slay God is on permanent hold until another code-possessor is located," C.C. finished before she bit back into her slice of pizza.

Lelouch nodded. "Which means that I won't have to accelerate any of my plans for now."

C.C. finished the slice of pizza she'd been munching on when Lelouch came in before she asked him, "So how do you plan on handling Ohgi and the others tomorrow?"

Lelouch smirked at her question. "For the most part, I'm not changing it one bit."

C.C. cocked an eyebrow at him as she bit into another slice of pizza. She swallowed the pizza in her mouth before asking him, "What do mean by that?"

Lelouch chuckled before he revealed part of his plan to her. "The only change I plan on making, aside from Suzaku's first real talk with Zero, will be that I intend to show them Geass."

"That's a fairly large change Lelouch," C.C. observed as she swallowed another mouthful of pepperoni, mozzarella, and tomato sauce. "It _was_ the reason that Ohgi and the rest of the Black Knights betrayed you before."

"I only plan on showing Ohgi and Kallen at the moment," Lelouch revealed to her. "And it will be after I've rescued Suzaku."

C.C.'s face took on a pondering look as she appeared to try and decipher Lelouch's reasoning. "Why only the two of them?" she finally asked.

Lelouch smiled. "You'll know soon enough," he told her.

C.C. pouted like a spoiled child as Lelouch told her that her question wouldn't get an answer right now.

Lelouch then leaned over to her and lightly kissed her cheek. He then said to her, "Don't worry C.C., I'll tell you everything in due time. I promise."

"Don't you trust me?" she pleaded like a young child. She adopted what Lelouch dubbed her puppy-dog eyes as she pleaded.

"I trust you more than anyone," he comforted her. "Don't you ever think any differently." Lelouch gently wrapped her in a hug. "Right now, I need you to trust me on this. Okay?"

C.C. nodded after a few seconds. "Alright," she resigned. "But you need to stop keeping secrets from me. After all, we are partners. Aren't we?"

Lelouch gently smiled as he looked deeply into the amber eyes of the green-haired girl. "We're more than just partners," he assured her. "I thought you knew that."

C.C.'s cheeks turned red as Lelouch reached for her dress' zipper.

* * *

Kallen had just gotten on the Rail Line to go to the Tokyo Tower, just like Zero had told her to do over the phone a few days ago. The red-haired half-Britannian took a seat away from as many fellow passengers as possible.

Kallen bit her thumb as she thought back to the shower incident two days ago.

_I know that he was there, but his voice sounded _exactly_ like Zero's,_ she thought to herself as the train rumbled on the magnetic tracks. She knew that there was no way for her to believe that Lelouch was actually Zero logically. _It's not physically possible to be in two different places at once, and I was holding his wrist the entire time while Zero was talking to me on the phone._

Kallen lifted her gaze to see how far the railway was from the Tokyo Tower.

"Next stop, Tokyo Tower," the automated voice signaled the desired location.

Kallen stood up from her seat and looked into the train car behind the one she was on.

_Good,_ she thought as her gaze found who she was looking for. _Ohgi didn't come alone._ She saw a few familiar faces surrounding the resistance group's leader.

She felt Ohgi's group following her from a distance as she stepped onto the Tokyo Tower platform. The feeling of being watched by her fellow fighters stayed with her as the entrance doors to the Tokyo Tower slid open with a hiss.

Kallen passed the reception desk and scanned the area, searching for anyone who looked suspicious to her.

She saw the typical Tokyo Tower visiting crowd. Nothing but a bunch of stuck-up privileged Britannian pigs who'd decided to take a tour of the last structure left standing after the Pacific War. She felt sick as all of the Britannians ogled the tower like it was some kind of piece of meat, and not a valuable landmark that signified hard work and dedication. Regardless of how she felt about those pigs though, there didn't appear to be anyone that seemed out of place.

_I guess that he's really careful,_ she thought as she walked across the entrance lobby. _This Zero character will probably take extreme caution in order to avoid being noticed and found out so soon._ Kallen began to piece together just what kind of person this Zero would end up being.

Kallen looked behind her after she'd pressed the button that represented going up in the elevator. She confirmed that Ohgi and his group were still following her, and then she entered the elevator and pressed the button that would take her to the observation level. The elevator's doors shut with a soft hiss and the hunk of metal lurched as it was pulled upwards by the pulley system it used.

The elevator came to a halt with another lurch, and the doors parted as they opened automatically.

As Kallen left the elevator, her ears were bombarded by Britannian propaganda about the war between the 'Holy' Britannian Empire and the Island nation of Japan.

Kallen sighed in exasperation as the propaganda continued to attack her ears. _Yes. _We_ were the unenlightened nation,_ she thought sarcastically.

She decided to walk over to one of the display cases that showed off some traditional Japanese artifacts and see just what Britannia decided to show its citizens. There was a traditional Japanese katana, civil war-era samurai armor, and a copper plaque that gave a brief description of what seppuku was. Kallen noted to herself that it conveniently didn't explain just what seppuku meant to both Lord and Vassal.

Kallen heard a few pings over the Tower's P.A. system. "Paging a Ms. Kallen Stadtfelt of Ashford Academy," the voice rang throughout the Tokyo Tower. "One of your personal effects has been turned in at the kiosk on the observation level."

Kallen immediately turned around and her eyes darted around her for someone, anyone that looked suspicious. _I sure as hell didn't lose anything,_ she realized. _So it must be a drop-off._

She turned her head around as the elevator that she'd just ridden to the observation level arrived with a "beep!" She saw Ohgi and his entourage inside the elevator. Ohgi must have just heard the announcement as well, because as their eyes met, he nodded to her. Kallen silently nodded back.

Kallen then looked at the observation level's large map, found where the announcement had said for her to go to in order to receive whatever Zero had left for her, and walked to the information desk at the end of the observation level's entrance hallway.

"Hi, I'm Kallen Stadtfelt," she said to the polite young woman behind the desk that held whatever it was Zero wanted her to have.

The receptionist kept her practiced smile and held out an unfamiliar blue phone. "I'm assuming this is yours ma'am."

Kallen stared at the new phone in her hand. _So it was a drop,_ she realized.

"Um," the receptionist had noticed the look on her face. "Is something the matter? It is yours, isn't it?"

Kallen quickly snapped out of her daze. "It's mine," she hurriedly said to the skeptical woman. "Do you remember who turned my phone in? I'd like to thank them."

"I'm afraid I don't," the receptionist replied.

_This is a one-time opportunity,_ she thought as she continued to press for information. "Do you remember what they looked like at least?" Kallen wanted to at least know what Zero looked like so she could narrow down the list.

The receptionist shook her head. "All I remember is that it was a very polite young man," the cheery woman responded.

_Then it definitely wasn't that pervert Lelouch._

Kallen wasn't sure, but it seemed like the receptionist's eyes had a red ring around them.

Kallen left the young receptionist and walked out onto the observation deck. She felt disgusted at the sight of the Tokyo Settlement. Her hands clenched into tight fists, her knuckles turning white, as she remembered the Japan before Emperor Charles decided that he wanted the Sakuradite.

"Damned Britannians," she quietly mouthed to herself.

Kallen felt her left hand start to vibrate. She opened her fist and noticed that it was Zero's drop phone. "Zero" was listed as the Caller ID on the phone's display screen.

_It's him._ Kallen steeled herself and pressed the "Receive Call" button on the display screen. She then pressed the phone to her ear. "It's Q-1," she quietly whispered into her new phone.

"I want you and your friends to get on the next outbound Kanjou train," Zero informed her over the phone. "The fifth line. We'll meet on the train." The line was then cut off before she could reply to her new orders.

Kallen found Ohgi and signaled him that it was time to follow her to their goal.

_It's about time. Let's see who this guy really is,_ Kallen thought as she found the rail line Zero wanted her to board.

Ohgi and his entourage followed her onto the fifth Kanjou rail line. They were all gathered together in the rear car.

Kallen's eyes moved as fast as hawks in order to confirm whether or not someone appeared to be out of place or suspicious. However, Kallen felt like she was the one who didn't belong. Everyone in the train car was simply sitting there, their faces lax and staring down at their hands. The only ones standing were those in her brother's resistance movement.

Kallen felt the train lurch forward as it started its route once more.

The new phone she'd been given vibrated and she answered it.

"What is it?" she demanded.

"Face forward and look to your right." She did. "What do you see?" he asked her.

_Is this some sort of damned test?_ Kallen wondered. "I see the Britannian Tokyo Settlement. A bustling, successful city that was built on top of Japanese corpses."

"Now for the left," Zero demanded of her.

Kallen grimaced at the sight as she turned her gaze onto the ghetto. "I see _our_ Tokyo. A desiccated husk of what the city once was. The remnants of a great city from before the invaders sucked it dry."

"Good answer." Zero sounded pleased. "Now make your way to the first train car. I'm waiting." The line then went dead.

_It's about damn time._ Kallen was frustrated at this Zero guy. He not only had the nerve to hide himself from her at Tokyo Tower, he was _testing_ her devotion to her cause.

She didn't even bother confirming with Ohgi before she began to march through the train cars.

Kallen began to feel more nervous the closer she got to the front train car. Every one of the cars was the same. Not one person was standing, aside from Kallen, Ohgi, and the group the resistance leader brought with him.

Kallen braced herself as she reached the door for the train's front car. _Now we see just who this bastard really is._ She then roughly forced open the door linking the two cars and entered the foremost train car. Ohgi and his group entered right after her.

Aside from the lone figure before them all, the train car was completely empty.

"Was that ceasefire your doing?" Kallen demanded of the dark figure before her and her friends.

"Answer us," Ohgi pleaded. "Did you arrange for the Shinjuku massacre to stop?"

The figure turned around right as the train entered into a dimly-lit tunnel.

_So, he's really dramatic, huh?_ Kallen immediately began to profile the person standing in front of her.

All-in-all, Kallen had to admit that this guy's appearance was a tad bit intimidating. He wore a dark black cape, outlined in a golden-colored trim. His suit underneath the cape was a deep, dark royal blue with a golden pattern stretching from his shoes to his upper torso. His neck was covered with a white cravat. But what troubled Kallen the worst was the mask that he wore over his face. The mask covered his entire head. It appeared to use a type of reflective glass which only allows a one-way view.

"Did you like my tour of the city?" the figure Kallen figured had to be Zero asked.

"Tour?" Ohgi was confused.

"I had to ensure that you knew the difference." Zero dramatically extended his arms outward, his cape billowing around him as his arms extended. "The difference between the Settlement and the ghetto."

"Oh, we know the difference," Ohgi spat out with disgust filling his words. "The difference exists, and it's a harsh one at that. Which is why we resist them."

"You're wrong," Zero snapped back. "Britannia will not fall to mere terrorism."

"Fall?" Ohgi seemed to wonder at what Zero meant. Kallen was as well.

"What you do is nothing more than childish nuisance to them." Zero acted like he was performing in an opera as he lectured them. "If you want Japan to be truly freed, then you must defeat Britannia itself. It is a war that must be waged, but not on the innocent. Take up your sword and fight for justice!"

_He's quite charismatic, I gotta admit,_ Kallen thought as Zero performed for them. "That's all good enough to say," she pointed out. "But why should we believe you at all?"

"She's right," Ohgi agreed. "Lose the mask!"

"Very well," Zero began. "But instead of my face, I shall demonstrate my power. If I give you the impossible, then will I have earned your trust?"

Kallen couldn't believe the audacity that this guy possessed. "Just what do you have in mind?" she asked Zero skeptically.

Zero seemed to have been expecting that, because he chuckled once before revealing to them his plan to gain their trust. "I will save Suzaku Kururugi for you all." Zero pulled out a photograph and handed it to Ohgi. "I only need you and Q-1 over there, he said to Ohgi as the train reached its stop. "I believe that this is your stop. All that matters is the exterior is finished by tomorrow. Meet me at the junkyard by the Saitama ghetto at tomorrow's sundown."

Kallen felt as if her legs were moving on their own as she exited the train car onto the platform.

* * *

Lelouch smirked from behind his mask as the 'gas' container was finally hidden atop the vehicle he'd rescue Suzaku with once more.

"Are you sure about this?" Kallen asked him after returning from changing into the white chauffer outfit he'd procured for her.

Lelouch turned around and faced her. "Sure about what?" he asked the red-haired woman from behind Zero's mask.

"I mean, you _do_ know what that container had in it. Right?" she asked him nervously. Kallen was still under the impression that Code-R was a deadly poison gas.

"You mean about the poison gas?" Lelouch questioned her nonchalantly.

Kallen winced briefly before she silently nodded once.

"I replaced it with nothing more than colored smoke," he assured the red-haired woman. He saw relief wash over her face before he continued. "As long as you and your friend both do everything exactly as I explained, there will not be any civilian casualties. That isn't something I want on my conscience." _Never again, not after Euphy,_ he silently added.

Kallen sighed in relief at what he'd just revealed to her. "Thanks. So can we really rescue Kururugi?" she asked after having her conscience cleared.

"Yes, we can," Lelouch told her through the voice filter. "As long as you and your friend execute, not one soul will need to get hurt."

"Don't worry," she said to him. "We will."

Kallen then turned back towards the fake-transport that her and Ohgi had built and started walking over to it.

She stopped after taking a few steps and asked him, "What happened to the poison gas?"

_You want to know that badly, huh?_ He then told her what he'd prepared in case she wanted to know. "I destroyed it. Something like poison gas should never have even come into existence in the first place." It wasn't a complete lie. He did believe that something as dangerous as chemical warfare should never exist.

Kallen thanked him and then walked over to her responsibility for the operation and sat down in the driver's seat.

The final touches were put on the fake transport of Lelouch's recently-deceased half-brother. Lelouch then climbed up and took his place behind the Britannian flag.

_Now then,_ he thought as he took his position. _Let's go and save Suzaku from death once more._

Lelouch then signaled to Kallen and Ohgi to begin the operation.

* * *

Kallen simply couldn't believe what she had just witnessed. Everything went precisely how Zero had told her and Ohgi that it would. From how that glory-hog Jeremiah let them on the highway, to how 'Orange' would make Jeremiah actually _help_ them get away. The damned leader of the Purist faction. The most outspoken Britannian against rights for the Numbers. He had helped them rescue none other than the last Prime Minister of Japan's son.

Zero had asked the two of them to stay in the shadows nearby while he conversed with Suzaku.

"So Kururugi," Zero started. "What do you think about your Britannian masters now?"

Suzaku gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "I think that it's something that needs to be changed."

Kallen couldn't help but nod at that statement. _You're damn straight it needs to be fucking changed,_ she thought. She didn't voice her thoughts out loud because Zero had instructed her and Ohgi not to speak until he called to them directly.

"What do you think needs to be changed, in particular?" Zero cunningly asked Kururugi.

"The treatment of its subjects." Suzaku didn't hesitate in the slightest as he revealed what he thought. "Whether they are Britannians or Numbers."

Kallen was in disbelief at Kururugi's last declaration. _Why should he want to help _Britannians_?_ she wondered. _They're all the same. All of them are pompous, arrogant, elitist bastards. They don't give two shits about anyone other than themselves._

"Do you want to change it?" Zero asked Suzaku.

Suzaku glared back at the reflective glass of Zero's mask. "Yes. I fully intend to change it. That's exactly the reason why I joined the Britannian military and became an Honorary Britannian."

_What is this guy babbling about?_ Kallen couldn't fathom what Suzaku meant. _There's no way he'll ever change anything if he's working with them. Those damned Britannians won't ever even allow an Eleven to do anything. Whether they have been given Honorary Citizenship or not._

Zero's mask nodded to Suzaku. Zero then said something Kallen never believed he would have to Suzaku. "I understand. You intend to invoke change from within the Britannian system itself. Am I right in assuming that about you Kururugi?"

Kallen was in disbelief at Zero's last words. _Is Zero actually saying that he believes it can be done?_

Suzaku's eyes widened in shock at Zero's remark. "It is," the Japanese young man responded after regaining his composure from the shock of having someone figure out his idea so quickly. "This system can be used in a way to invoke change from within. I intend to allow the Britannians to peacefully choose the change, instead of forcing the change when not everyone wants it."

Kallen's fists shook in anger at what the brown-haired young man was saying. _So he's saying that my brother fought and died for nothing!_

She then felt Ohgi's hand rest on her shoulder. She quickly turned to look her brother's best friend in life with fire in her eyes. Ohgi shook his head once their eyes met to discourage her from attempting what he no doubt knew she was contemplating doing to Suzaku for insulting her brother's memory like that.

"Personally," Zero's words brought Kallen back to observing the conversation between the two enigmas before her, "I think that you are nothing more than a fool for trying this, Kururugi. However, I'm fairly certain that you have your reasons for using the logic of a system instead of relying on your personal emotions and feelings." Zero then extended his gloved hand towards Suzaku. "Understand that, even thought our methods may differ greatly, the two of us both fight for the same thing. We both fight to realize a change in Britannia. I do not intend to tell you the odds which you will face on the path you have chosen for yourself. You were well aware of them when you took the first step, weren't you?"

Suzaku nodded as he grasped Zero's gloved hand with his own. "I was. And I thank you for saving me just now. But I must ask you, so that I can know for myself. Why did you kill Prince Clovis?"

"I killed him for ordering such an atrocity as the Shinjuku massacre," Zero told him coldly. "The Prince was willing to have an entire peaceful gathering of under-privileged subjects wiped out just to cover-up his own mistakes."

Suzaku then let go of Zero's hand and replied to Zero's icy revelation, "While I disapprove, I must thank you for saving all of those lives." Suzaku then turned away and started walking away from the revolutionary. "I must be getting back to my court-martial."

"Godspeed, Kururugi," Zero called as Suzaku left. Zero was still for another moment after Suzaku had left ear-shot before he spoke to the two hidden resistance fighters. "You can come out now. I wish to speak with the two of you."

_About time,_ Kallen thought to herself as she left the shadows. _And just who that Kururugi think he is, leaving like that. We just saved his ass from the gallows, and he willingly walks back to the noose as if nothing happened._

Ohgi said it before Kallen could. "Why are you just letting Suzaku Kururugi leave like that?"

"Do you know why Kururugi went back after we saved him?" Zero asked his two accomplices.

"No, not really," Ohgi admitted.

Zero then explained it to them. "Suzaku Kururugi decided to return to his court-martial because he refuses to allow Jeremiah Gottwald and his ilk a reason for cracking down on both Elevens and Honorary Britannians. He only wishes to serve his people and wants to protect them in the best way possible. That young man believes that any ends reached through condemnable means aren't worth anything." Zero's figure then turned and looked towards the exit which Kururugi had just used. "That young man's eyes were hollow. Just like he'd committed an atrocious act and is now honor-bound to seek out his retribution and punishment. I have no right to turn Kururugi from the path that he has chosen. He has the same eyes that I did."

"What do you mean by that?" Kallen asked of the dark figure of Zero.

Zero chuckled before he turned back towards the pair of resistance fighters. "I'll tell that to you someday," he told them. "But for now, I'm sure that the two of you are a little bit curious as to what that whole 'Orange' business was really about."

"Well, we were curious," Kallen hesitantly admitted to Zero.

"It was, literally, nothing," Zero revealed to them. "'Orange' isn't something that is real. It was simply a bluff I used in order to get Gottwald within range for me to use my ability on him."

"We're not stupid," Ohgi accused him. "Whatever this 'Orange' is, it must be something _huge_ to make the founder and leader of the Purist faction react like that."

Zero then turned and began to walk out of the crumbling building they were residing in at the moment. "Follow me," the masked figure ordered them as he walked.

Kallen and Ohgi followed him, just like Zero had ordered them to, in silence for around ten minutes before Kallen finally asked the masked man, "Where are you taking us?" Kallen then realized the path they were taking. _We're going deeper into the ghetto,_ she observed as she noticed the familiar landmarks leading to Ohgi's apartment. _Is he going to kill us?_

Zero didn't respond to her question and just continued to walk, Ohgi and Kallen in tow.

The masked man then stopped after another few minutes of walking together. Kallen noticed that the three of them had come to the ghetto's market, which still had a few people there.

"Do you know anyone here?" Zero asked his two shadows.

Ohgi and Kallen followed his orders and scanned the small group of people who were still at the market.

Ohgi was the first to recognize someone. Kallen noticed that it was Ohgi's favorite fruit vendor, who was just closing up shop for the night. Yeah," Ohgi confirmed to their leader. "That guy is someone I shop from," he said as he pointed to the aforementioned vendor.

"Call him over," Zero demanded.

Ohgi followed Zero's order and brought his favorite fruit vendor over to meet Zero.

"What is your name?" Zero asked the frightened young man as Ohgi brought him over.

"T-Takashi Hirano, sir." The young fruit vendor was obviously intimidated by Zero's image.

"Until I say otherwise," Zero's voice was hypnotic, "you will follow all of my orders."

"Yes, Zero," the man replied with confidence returned to his voice. Hirano then stood straight and asked the masked man, "What would you like of me?"

Kallen's jaw hung open as she stared in disbelief at what she was witnessing. She knew Hirano as well, and he would _never_ do anything that Zero was commanding him to do. The fruit vendor had become a one-man circus in front of the group of three. He was doing cartwheels with practiced ease, juggling without ever dropping anything, and walking on his hands as if they were his feet. The vendor was never this coordinated in all the time Kallen knew him. Kallen looked at Hirano's brown eyes, and she noticed a faint red ring around his irises as the young fruit vendor performed for them.

_So I didn't imagine it after all,_ she realized as she thought back to the Tokyo Tower receptionist yesterday.

"What the hell are you doing to him?!" Ohgi hysterically demanded.

"Go home Hirano," Zero ordered of the young man. "Once you enter your home, you are forever released."

"Yes, Zero." Hirano then bowed to the masked man and left, hopefully going back home like Zero told him to.

Kallen couldn't find the words to speak after what she had just seen. _What the hell was that!? Was that some kind of hypnosis that Zero used?_ she silently pondered. _No, he didn't have enough time to hypnotize him at all. At every hypnosis show I've ever been to, it takes at least ten minutes to fully hypnotize someone. Hirano was performing like a carny immediately after Zero told him he would follow his orders. Am I supposed to actually believe that Zero possess some kind of supernatural power?_

Zero turned back around after Hirano scampered away and his reflective mask faced the stunned pair of resistance fighters. "Do you understand?" he asked the both of them. "'Orange' didn't exist, nor does it to the best of my knowledge. I used my ability of Geass to have Jeremiah turn on his allies and help us in our escape, thus dividing the greatest power of Britannian soldiers located here in Area Eleven as well."

Kallen blinked away the shock she was still experiencing. "What the HELL kind of power is that?" she demanded answers. "It completely disregards humanity's free will and it _forces_ someone to bend to your will!"

Zero's shoulders and head sagged at her accusation. "It isn't a power that I am proud of," he slowly said to her. "This power is terrible, I know that. With just one tiny slip of the tongue, even if I meant it as a joke or an example, my power can force someone to kill themselves or even start a full-scale genocide." Zero's mask then raised and appeared to look directly at Kallen. "Do you understand that burden?"

Kallen didn't know how to answer Zero. She didn't understand that burden at all, but she knew the burden of being a slave.

"Geass is more curse than gift," Zero continued, his voice somber and morose. Kallen realized that the way Zero was speaking to them was the same way she spoke to Naoto after she had killed her first man. Sad, guilty, and despondent. "It requires direct eye contact, but there is a special glass-like material that is able to disrupt the optical connection, thus rendering the power useless."

"Which is why you wear the mask," Ohgi finished, seemingly understanding whatever plight Zero was saying he had.

Zero nodded to Ohgi. "I wear the mask for two reasons. One is to protect the people I care about, not me. The other, and primary reason, is to prevent my power from ruling over me and whoever follows me. If you decide to follow me, I can promise you that all of you will receive preventative measures against my curse."

"I don't know about you Kallen," Ohgi said to her, "but this Geass is a burden that I wouldn't wish on anyone."

"But Ohgi-"

"But nothing," Ohgi cut her off. "This power Zero says he has will force him into a life of solitude and isolation. He won't ever be able to get close to anyone without risking his Geass power destroying them. If anything, I pity Zero for having his curse," Ohgi finished.

"Thank you," Zero said to Ohgi. "Will you help me to free Japan and destroy Britannia then?" Zero asked as he extended his gloved hand to Ohgi.

Ohgi nodded as he grasped Zero's hand in his own. "I will. You trusted both of us with this knowledge, and I'm going to trust in you to be able to make my best friend's dream come true."

Kallen gasped as Ohgi had just said that he trusted Zero with Naoto's dream. _Ohgi wouldn't do something like that without good reason,_ she reasoned with herself. _But that Geass still worries me._ "Zero," she called to the masked revolutionary. "I'll help you, but I want those protective measures first."

"I know," Zero responded to her. Kallen felt as if Zero had been expecting her to demand that. "They're already being made as we speak." Zero then turned away from them and began to walk away from them. "I have to leave. I will contact you with your next instructions."

Before Kallen could call back to him, Zero turned the corner and vanished from the ghetto.

**End Part 2**

* * *

**A/N:** Welcome back everyone!

Thus ends Part 2: Zero's Rebirth. Tell me what you honestly thought about it, just no spam. I am only able to improve as a writer through criticism, both good and bad. The better I get as a writer, the better the story gets for you to enjoy.

I'm going to tell you this so that nobody thinks it. Lelouch didn't use his Geass on Kallen on the train. So Kallen wasn't forced to leave, it just_ felt_ like her legs were moving on their own. Also, in case you all forgot or didn't read my author's note in Chapter 1 (MY chapter 1, not the prologue), Zero's debut and the whole 'Orange' incident went exactly as it did in Canon. I refuse to piggyback so much that I am just writing out what I saw happen in the masterpiece that was Code Geass. I have some pride in myself dammit! I also respect Code Geass far too much to blatantly plagiarize.

Now for the part that a friend of mine showed me, and to be honest I didn't believe him until I confirmed it for myself.

Once More, with Feeling. It has reached the top 100 Code Geass stories in not even a month! I'm still in shock from finding that out. I owe all of those who've Favorited and/or Followed the story a great debt for that. I hope to repay you all with a greater story each and every time I put out a new chapter.

Now, seeing as how the name you left tells me why you didn't login toolazytologin, I will answer your review with this. Why wouldn't I continue to inject some humor into my story? I enjoy writing this just as much as all of you enjoy reading it. There are a couple of times where I had to put my pencil down because I was laughing so hard or was tearing up at a few scenes I wrote. This story is just as much a journey for me as it is for all of you. To be honest, at this point the story is simply writing itself, and I'm just the messenger who's sharing it with all of you.

Thank you all for reading, reviewing, favoriteing, and following my story. The more the merrier. Don't forget to share the story with others! Sharing is caring. It also helps give me more motivation to write a better story for all of you when I get more notices of favorites and follows.

Until next time! I'll see you all in the beginning of Part 3: Knights and Princesses.


	6. Knights and Princesses: Chapter 5

**Part 3: Knights and Princesses**

* * *

**"Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real."**

**-Cormac McCarthy, _All the Pretty Horses._**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Suzaku Kururugi woke up in the same prison cell that he'd taken up residence in. It had been about a week since Zero had made his public debut and publicly confessed to the capital crime which Suzaku had been accused of by Jeremiah Gottwald.

He sat up, still in his white prisoner's strait-jacket uniform, and looked around his cell one more time, just like he did every time he woke up in the morning. The only luxury that he was allowed to have was an actual mattress to sleep on, granted the mattress wasn't any better than sleeping on the solid concrete cell flooring. The concrete grey walls of the cell surrounded him, except for the plexiglass wall that served as both the cell's entrance and only exit.

Suzaku sat up from the rock-hard mattress, slowly stood up so that he could maintain his balance since his arms were still pinned to his sides by the strait-jacket's straps, and walked over to the glass wall. He noticed that the hallway of his cell-block was completely barren and dark. The guard who'd usually been posted outside his cell wasn't present anymore.

"I guess they finally realized that I'm not going to try and run," Suzaku reasoned as he walked back over to his mattress that was no better than sleeping on rocks.

He slowly descended as he sat down on his bed. He had made the mistake of dropping onto the mattress unceremoniously a few days ago, and his ass still felt bruised from it.

Suzaku closed his eyes and did what he decided he'd do in order to help pass the time of his containment, surf through his memories and picture himself in better times of his childhood. His memories drifted him off to a time around seven years ago, back when he'd made his first real friend, Lelouch. That cocky, over-confident, overly-sisterly-doting siscon of a Britannian Prince that was living in Prime Minister Kururugi's home. Suzaku recounted the times where he and Lelouch were forced into sitting seiza and received a stern lecture from Tohdoh-sensei about playing around instead of practicing the martial arts the large military officer was trying to drill into their heads. He then remembered how Suzaku's younger cousin, Kaguya Sumeragi, had practically begged her cousin to formally introduce her to the dark-haired Britannian Prince so she could, as she said it, "Work my magic on him." Whatever that meant. Suzaku could only smirk as he remembered how _that_ went down after his little cousin had decided to take things into her own hands and get a date with Lelouch on her own. They may have been children, buy Kaguya was determined to get him to like her. She _claimed_ that she merely wanted to eventually have a political marriage so that Japan and Britannia would be able to peacefully negotiate together instead of going to war against each other.

"So," Kaguya began. "Do you think that you'd be willing to go out together? What about it Lelouch?"

Lelouch didn't even look up from the book he'd borrowed from Genbu Kururugi's personal library as he told the energetic young girl flatly, "Nope. Not interested."

Kaguya became infuriated at Lelouch's flat-out rejection. No one had ever turned her down before. "Why not?" she demanded. "Or is it that you actually prefer Suzaku's company over that of someone of the opposite gender?" she shrewdly asked the prince.

Lelouch actually looked up from the copy of the _Romance of the Three Kingdoms_ at her crass statement. "Are you implying something Ms. Sumeragi?" the raven-haired prince asked her.

"Read into it what you will," Kaguya told him with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I'm simply stating something that I've seen."

Lelouch marked his page and closed the book. He then rubbed his temples in annoyance, and Suzaku didn't blame him for it. Kaguya had a knack for finding a way under people's skin at even seven years old. The Prime Minister's niece was far too smart for her own good. A few people in the Kururugi household said in hushed whispers that the young Sumeragi heir already possessed a forked, silver tongue that would make most politicians in the E.U. wary of her. Suzaku figured that she loved getting under people's skins because she was well aware that nobody could do anything to her because the Sumeragi Conglomerate controlled around forty-percent of Japan's economy.

"I have an idea," Lelouch directed to Kaguya. "How about the two of us make a bet?"

Kaguya energetically clapped her hands together. "Sounds fun. If I win, then you _have_ to take me on at least one _real_ date."

Lelouch and Suzaku simultaneously rolled their eyes at the obvious response from the little devil. "I figured as much. So predictable," Lelouch mumbled too low for Kaguya to hear, but loud enough for Suzaku to understand it. Suzaku felt the corner of his mouth twitch, wanting to grin at that. Lelouch then presented his terms of the bet. "And if I win, then you leave me alone. You also agree to stop spreading unfounded rumors about Suzaku and me. Deal?" Lelouch extended his small hand.

Kaguya immediately grabbed his hand with hers and shook it so fast it appeared to leave after-images. "Deal," she responded as she shook his hand. Kaguya then let go of him and asked, "So what's the competition? You put up the bet, so you choose."

Lelouch smirked. Suzaku knew full well what that smirk on his best friends face meant. Kaguya had walked right into one of the dark-haired prince's elaborate traps. "Shogi," he said quickly. "I believe that it's the Japanese version of chess.

Kaguya was jumping up and down while clapping her hands together. "Excellent," the Sumeragi heir replied to Lelouch's presented challenge. "I'll go get the board." She then left the Kururugi study to go and find a Shogi board.

"Hey, Lelouch," Suzaku finally spoke up after he was sure that Kaguya wouldn't hear them.

"Yes, Suzaku?"

"You planned all that, didn't you?" Suzaku asked Lelouch.

Lelouch simply grinned at his friend and then went back to reading his favorite Eastern work of Literature.

Kaguya returned after around fifteen minutes had passed, Shogi board in hand. "I hope you're ready Lelouch," she confidently told the prince. "Nobody's ever beaten me at Shogi. Not even our dear Suzaku has ever come close to beating me."

Suzaku conveniently decided to forget to inform his over-confident younger cousin that he'd never even come close to besting his best friend in any mind-based games as Kaguya made the first move and the bet between the two dark-haired children began.

Suzaku felt a grin appear on his face while he was lying down on the mattress in his cell as he remembered Kaguya's distraught face after Lelouch had called "checkmate" in barely fifteen moves.

Suzaku was brought back to the reality of his cold, hard, unforgiving cell as he heard footsteps echoing in the hallway of his cell-block.

"Eleven!" The guard never even brought himself to try and learn Suzaku's name. Suzaku had returned that courtesy to his watcher. "You still alive in there?"

Suzaku sighed, but he was used to the verbal abuse he was the target of ever since he became an Honorary Britannian. "Yes. I am still here," he answered his guard.

The guard grunted as he arrived before the plexiglass wall of Suzaku's cell. Suzaku noticed that the guard was carrying a plain, brown paper bag with him this time. "You're wanted," the guard informed him gruffly. The large guard opened up the plexiglass door and threw the brown bag into the cell. "So get dressed. Come over here boy."

Suzaku followed the guard's instructions and stood up from his bed and walked over to the guard.

"Turn around," the guard ordered. "I don't care to look at your face."

Suzaku obliged the guard and turned around. He then felt the claps restraining his left arm release, and then he was pushed back further into his cell.

"Get dressed," the guard ordered him again. "I'll be back to escort you in a few minutes." As the guard finished telling him that, Suzaku heard the plexiglass door behind him hiss shut once more.

Suzaku wasted no time in undoing the remaining binding straps on his prisoner's uniform. After he'd released his other arm from its bondage, he stretched them both out.

"Feels great to be able to move around again," he said to himself as he pulled off his prisoner's attire.

Suzaku then put on the casual attire that he'd been provided with and waited until the guard returned to escort him to wherever it is that he was apparently wanted.

The guard returned and then escorted the brown-haired Japanese youth to the trial area of the Area Eleven Government Bureau. He was shoved into his seat by the same guard and told to await the judge for his verdict.

Suzaku realized that, aside from the bailiff, there was no one inside the courtroom.

_So,_ he thought to himself as he waited. _Will I be found guilty after Zero confessed to the murder? Jeremiah told me in his 'interrogation' that they had an overwhelming amount of evidence that all pointed to me as the one who murdered Prince Clovis. It doesn't matter; I'm prepared for the worst. Governments always love their scapegoats._

"All rise!" the bailiff barked as the judge entered the courtroom with a large black binder in his hand. Suzaku stood from his seat.

"Be seated," the judge spoke. Suzaku did as he was told.

The judge took his seat and opened up the black binder that Suzaku figured must be the case findings that would either condemn him or release him.

A few brief moments passed agonizingly slowly as the judge went through his binder. During those moments, the only sound was the paper rustling as the judge searched through the many papers in his binder.

"Case number one-zero-seven," the judge began as he located the appropriate page. "Private Suzaku Kururugi," the judge never looked up from the binder as he continued on. "In the murder of his highness Prince Clovis you are no longer a suspect and are hereby released due to a lack of evidence to justify your incarceration."

Before Suzaku could even say anything else, such as asking what happened to all of the 'evidence' that he had been shown, he was escorted out of the government bureau and released. They told him not to return unless he was ever summoned.

"What happened," Suzaku wondered as he turned away from the bureau. "First they tell me they have mountains of evidence that proves I'm the one that killed the Viceroy, and then I'm free because they don't have any evidence to hold me on anymore." Suzaku continued to ponder as he walked away from the large building he'd been forcibly housed in for near a week.

"Out of the way please!" Suzaku heard a voice coming from above him.

He looked up and saw a young woman with pink hair falling from the sky at him.

"Look out below!" the young woman called as she continued to fall from the sky like an angel.

Suzaku immediately dropped the duffel that he was carrying and caught the falling woman in his arm.

He was then able to finally take in the sight of the young woman who he'd just saved from her fall. She had long pink hair, was wearing a simple but beautiful dress, and was quite pretty if he had to admit.

A phrase that his mother once told him was the only thing that occupied his thoughts as the young woman opened her eyes, revealing a stunning pair of blueish-purple irises to him.

"When you meet the one meant for you, you will feel destiny pull at you."

Suzaku didn't know why, but he certainly felt like destiny was pulling him as he took in the sight of the pretty girl who'd fallen out of the sky into his arms.

* * *

Lelouch was feeling particularly lazy this morning, so he refused to get up out of his bed and turn his buzzing alarm clock off.

The alarm continued to annoyingly buzz on and on, telling Lelouch that it was time to wake up and prepare for class.

He felt C.C. begin to stir from underneath the covers to his left.

"Your alarm is annoying me, Lelouch," C.C. said to him while herself was still half-asleep and groggy. "Hurry up and go turn it off you lazy bum." C.C. then pulled the covers over her head in an attempt to try and block the alarm's annoying buzzing and beeping from reaching her ears.

Lelouch turned over on his stomach and buried his face in his pillow. "Why don't you?" he asked her while still being a bit groggy himself. He then covered his ears with his pillow as the alarm continued to buzz on and annoy both of the lovers.

"Because I don't want to," C.C. told him while still hiding her face underneath the covers. "Besides, _I_ don't have to go to class. That honor is yours alone."

Lelouch sleepily groaned. "I've got good enough grades," he tried to reason both with the immortal woman and himself at the same time. "I don't want to go to class today. Class can survive without me today."

"Oh," C.C. said. "Is that Arthur?"

Lelouch panicked. He bolted out of the bed so fast that his covers still looked like he was still underneath them before they fell to the mattress. Lelouch immediately was aware and scanned his bedroom for the damned cat that nearly exposed him last time.

"Good," C.C. said to him as her face appeared from underneath the covers they shared. "You're up. While you're up, turn off that annoying alarm of yours."

Lelouch then came down from his adrenaline and realized that the green-haired girl had played him for a fool. "That was mean C.C." he lectured her as he walked over to his desk and turned his alarm off.

C.C. then sat up on the bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "But it worked, didn't it?" she reasoned while still rubbing her eyes.

Lelouch narrowed his eyes at the emerald-haired immortal woman that was his co-occupant of the bed. "You didn't have to make me think that I was about to get exposed by that mangy feline again."

C.C. shrugged. "I have no idea what you mean by that," she playfully shot back. "I thought I heard the meow of a cat."

"My ass," Lelouch grumbled under his breath. "Well, since I'm up I might as well go ahead and get dressed. Now that I think about it, I do need to talk to Milly about something today."

Lelouch then proceeded to get dressed while C.C. eyed his small frame lecherously. "You know Lelouch," she began.

"What is it?" he asked as he finished sliding his arms into his black and gold Ashford uniform.

"It's nothing. Never mind." C.C. waved her hand as she dismissed the topic that she was about to bring up. "I just remembered something is all," she told him.

Lelouch tried to think about what it was that she would have remembered but shrugged his shoulders and abandoned the attempt. Every attempt to figure out the woman's mind had failed so far, no reason that this one would be any different.

"Alright then," he said as he stood up from sliding on his shoes. "I'm about to head to breakfast with Nunnally. Care to join us this time?" He'd gotten into a habit of asking his secret roommate if she wanted to join Nunnally, Sayoko, and himself for breakfast, but C.C. always turned him down so that she could return to her peaceful sleep.

"Let me get some clothes on first," C.C. answered him as she nodded with a Cheshire grin plastered on her face. "Can't dine with your dear, precious little sister while I'm completely nude now can I?"

Lelouch cocked an eyebrow at her break in pattern. "No, you can't," he told her. Lelouch then went over to his chest of drawers and took out his red and black jacked-and-jeans combo that he'd lent to Kallen after her not-so-accidental-this-time champagne shower. "Here, wear these," he told her as he laid his clothes on the bed the two of them had been sharing every night since Shinjuku.

"My, my," C.C. teased. "It would appear you do have a gentlemanly side to you after all."

"Hurry up and get dressed woman," he scolded her. "As you pointed out earlier, I have classes soon enough to get to."

"Alright, alright," C.C. said, a little disappointment about having to abandon her teasing so soon present in her voice. "I'll be quick then." She then pointed to the dresser in the room that she'd commandeered for all of her non-formal clothes. "Can you grab my underwear?"

Lelouch felt his cheeks flush red involuntarily as she asked him that. "Why?" he finally brought himself to ask her after he regained a little of his composure, albeit his cheeks still tinged red.

C.C. exhaled in exasperation at him. "Because it is rather uncomfortable without them," she berated him matter-of-factly.

"I mean why me?" he asked her, hiding his growing embarrassment.

C.C. tilted her head, acting innocently and appearing to wonder at his actions. "Is there anyone else here?" she asked him.

Lelouch raised his finger to bring up one of the ten counter-arguments that he had prepared for that, but the words didn't leave his throat.

C.C. lightly giggled as she witnessed Lelouch's state of mind. "Don't tell me that after everything that the two of us have done together, that you're too embarrassed to handle a pair of panties and a bra?"

Lelouch couldn't tell her anything to the contrary. _I don't want to admit it,_ he thought to himself. _But she nailed the double bull's-eye dead center with that guess._

C.C. apparently took his silence on the matter as his confession, because she burst out laughing so hard that she fell over on her side.

"What's so damned funny?" he demanded, his face still red a bit.

C.C. continued to laugh as she said, "You." She then grabbed her sides. "It's so funny it hurts."

Lelouch grumbled as he finally relented himself to the embarrassment. He then tried to steel himself and block out the woman's laughter as he walked over to C.C.'s dresser.

As Lelouch reached her dresser, he felt his face heat up once more. _Why am I so embarrassed about this?_ he pondered to himself. _For Christ's sake I've seen her _naked_ plenty of times._

Lelouch grabbed the drawer's handles, his hands shaking as he did, and then pulled the forever-young immortal's underwear drawer out.

He couldn't believe what was before his eyes. Lelouch wasn't a pervert, at least not in his eyes, he just couldn't believe some of what was in this collection of underwear could even be considered clothing at all.

_I swear,_ Lelouch thought as he went rifling through C.C.'s underwear for a simple pair of panties and a matching bra. _Some of what's in here look more like colored dental floss than underwear._ He then scanned the collection for another few seconds before he found a simple pair of black, lace panties and a matching lace bra. _Finally._

He closed the drawer as he removed the pair of underwear garments and turned back to the still-laughing immortal woman on his bed. She had gone from simply lying on her side, to rolling around from laughing so hard. If it wasn't at his expense, Lelouch would have admitted that it was a funny scene to see her laughing like that.

"Here," he said to her as he gave C.C. her underwear. "Now hurry up and get dressed." He turned from her, his cheeks burning for some reason.

C.C.'s laughter died down to a small chuckle as she slipped into her panties. "Can you help me with the hook?" she asked as she slipped her arms through her bra. "It's a bitch for me."

"Sure," Lelouch nodded as he turned back around to face her.

After he'd helped her with the bra, C.C. quickly got dressed into the casual attire that Lelouch had provided for her.

Right as she slipped her arms into the red jacket, Lelouch heard someone knock on his bedroom door.

"Lelouch-sama," Sayoko called through his door. "Are you up? Lady Nunnally is concerned that you'll miss your morning classes."

_What is she saying?_ Lelouch wondered. He then looked at his alarm clock and panic set back in. "You mean to tell me classes start in twenty minutes!" Lelouch smacked his forehead to help calm him back down. "Tell Nunnally I'm up and going to class right now," he answered Sayoko through the door. "And also tell her I'm sorry for not being able to make it to breakfast today. _Someone_ had to be difficult this morning," he said as he glared at the fully-clothed C.C.

"I'll do just that," Sayoko said to him through the door. "I've got a few pieces of toast and jam with me if you'd like them."

Lelouch opened the door. "Thank you Sayoko. You're a life-saver." He and C.C. then filed out of his room. He then grabbed the paper plate from Sayoko with the slices of toast covered in grape jam. "Is there any breakfast left?" he asked the kunoichi.

Sayoko nodded in response. "Yes, there is still plenty breakfast left over." She then turned and asked C.C., "Would you like some miss C.C.?"

C.C. nodded to the Japanese woman. "Yes, I would."

"Well I'm off to class," Lelouch told the two women as he started to walk off while munching down his pieces of toast.

"Right this way, miss C.C.," Sayoko motioned for C.C. to follow her to the dining room.

The last thing Lelouch heard as he left was C.C. asking Sayoko, "Is Nunnally still eating?"

Lelouch left the Student Council building and trekked across the Ashford Campus to get to his first class. As he was walking, he spotted Kallen enter the school grounds while she was talking on her mobile phone.

_She must be talking with Ohgi about Zero and his mysterious 'Geass,'_ Lelouch figured as he purposely adjusted his route so that he would end up running into the crimson-haired beauty.

He ended up catching the tail-end of her conversation with whoever she was talking with.

"Uh-huh," Kallen was saying into her phone. "Well, I just got to school… No, I'm not in a… That's completely besides the point… I'm telling you that you're reading too much into absolutely nothing… I've got to go… Class is starting in five minutes… Okay… Tell her that I miss hanging out as well… Tell her I'm all the way in Area Eleven going to school… No. And you know exactly why I won't… Yes… Alright… Tell William the same… Okay… Bye." Kallen slammed her phone shut and sighed in annoyance. "Man he gets on my nerves!"

"Who does?" Lelouch asked as he appeared from behind a tree she was walking by. "Did Rivalz say something else?"

Kallen jumped in surprise when she heard Lelouch from seemingly out of nowhere. "Oh. It's you Lelouch." Kallen quickly regained her composure and shook her head. "Not that I know of," she answered his second question. "Rivalz does annoy me to no end, but that's not who I was talking about."

Kallen had progressively cooled her head about Lelouch over the last week. Mostly due to Shirley and Milly's roles as mediators and helping to talk her down. Lelouch got branded a "closet pervert" by the trio, but he could live with that. So long as Kallen wasn't going to murder him in his sleep for getting a glimpse of her goods, he was fine. His image was so wonderful in the school that most of the people outside of the Student Council refused to believe that Lelouch would do something like what he did the day of Kallen's induction into the Student Council, so his public image didn't take a hit. Granted, that's not to say that C.C. and Nunnally didn't relentlessly tease him about his new moniker.

Lelouch tilted his head as he thought,_ Must be Tamaki being Tamaki._ "So just who were you talking on the phone with? If you don't mind me asking," Lelouch quickly added on to his question.

Kallen sighed once more. "My father. Earl Stadtfelt heard through the grapevine that I'd joined the Student Council here at Ashford. He wanted to know how everything and everyone on the Council was. He also asked about whether everyone was treating me well," Kallen added as she stared at Lelouch.

"Are you going to try and get Rivalz taken care of?" he playfully asked her to try and keep his head on his shoulders. "Because Milly fights dirty when she thinks that someone is going to try and take away her favorite plaything."

Kallen and Lelouch laughed together as they continued to walk to class together. She hadn't even been a part of the Council for hardly a week and she was ingrained into the Council so deep that it was as if she had always been a part of it. The two of them had found common ground in going after the poor blue-haired young man that was head-over-heels for the blonde bombshell that loved ruining people's lives.

"No," Kallen assured him after she'd stopped laughing. "I may be the daughter of an Earl, but I would never use my father's power over something as petty as simple High School gossip. I'll handle that on my own."

"That's good to know," Lelouch told her. Lelouch acted like he was indeed truly grateful to hear that. After all, he wasn't supposed to know that she wouldn't use it just yet. "There are plenty of people who'd abuse their status for something far pettier and unimportant."

Kallen's eyes narrowed and her voice became serious. "Don't I know it," she growled.

Lelouch then recalled Kallen's attitude towards the Britannian nobility and decided to change the subject before the moisture in the air turned into ice crystals. "So how do you think you did on that Physics exam yesterday?" he quickly asked her.

Kallen shrugged. "I doubt I did that terribly," she told him, successfully defusing the powder-keg that was Kallen Kozuki. "I studied Newtonian Force last year. So I remembered that pretty well."

Lelouch nodded. "I did as well. What worried me was the free response question that combined kinetic motion and the resistance caused by friction without momentum transfer."

"Well if you'd bother to ever study," she fired at him. "Then you would've realized that the object's inertia was easily calculated and it cut the problem's difficulty in half.

Lelouch and Kallen continued to banter back and forth about Newtonian Laws and other complicated formulas and theories as they entered class just before the late-to-class bell rang out. Each of them then took their respective seats as they continued to glare at one another, neither backing down. Kallen had been trying to debate Lelouch on applicable physics, and he refused to back down from a battle of wits. A winner couldn't be determined, and neither was willing to admit the other was smarter, so they agreed to a tie for the time being.

_You are smart Kallen,_ Lelouch thought as he took his seat and the teacher called attendance. _But I don't lose in a battle of wits to anyone!_

Lelouch devoted most of his attention during class to ironing out the remaining wrinkles in his grand scheme for his second chance at defeating his father, uncle, and mother.

"Lunchtime!" Rivalz excitedly screamed as class was dismissed temporarily for lunch. The Council Secretary then turned to Lelouch and asked, "Got any plans for lunch?"

Lelouch nodded to his good friend. "I do. I received a 'special' email this morning, so I've got to go respond in an even more 'special' way." Lelouch used the code that the two of them developed to get Shirley off their backs about gambling to indicate that he'd received a challenge from an 'interested party' and Lelouch was going to arrange the meeting time and place with the other party.

Rivalz nodded to Lelouch. "Let me know if 'the King' will be making an appearance." Rivalz acknowledged Lelouch's message to him and told Lelouch to let him know when they'd be going together.

"I will," Lelouch answered his friend. "So I'm heading to the courtyard for some fresh air. Let me know if I'm needed," Lelouch told Rivalz as he began to walk towards the spacious courtyard.

Lelouch found a bench near the edge of the courtyard unoccupied and a decent distance from any prying eyes. He sat down, ate the lunch that Sayoko had prepared for him, and opened up his portable laptop computer. Lelouch found the email about his foolish challenger and scheduled the chess match to be held on the day before when the Kawaguchi hotel-jacking happened last time. He prayed that a key event like that didn't change dates on him.

"Umm, Lelouch." Kallen stole his attention away from his computer as he hit SEND and finalized his next opponent's bank account clearing day. "Can I ask you to do something for me? A personal favor."

"Sure," Lelouch replied to her with a warm smile on his face. "What would you like me to do for you?" Lelouch then thought to himself, _Why do I have this sense of déjà vu right now?_

Kallen shifted slightly in her uniform. "Could you help me find the number of the person I talked to? You know, when we were in the bathroom together."

_I'm so glad that C.C. isn't here to hear this,_ he thought as Kallen said that. _I'd never hear the end of it._ Lelouch then folded his computer shut. _Now I remember,_ Lelouch recalled the events of his past life. "I'm afraid that you won't find the number," he informed her. "The school phones don't use caller ID and the only person who can access the call history is the principal. Not even Milly gets to see it."

"Oh." Kallen sounded disappointed that her search wouldn't produce any fruit.

"I'd help you if I could," Lelouch assured her," but I-" The rest was caught in his throat.

Behind Kallen, Lelouch saw C.C.. She was still wearing the outfit that Lelouch had given her earlier that morning and was wondering around the school grounds, a bored look on her face. The immortal pest then started twirling around underneath the large tree about twenty meters from where Lelouch and Kallen were.

"That bitch!" Lelouch growled as his clenched fists began to shake. _Why?_ He was going to demand an answer from her when he got back to his room and was alone.

Kallen looked bewildered at Lelouch's sudden change in tone. "What?" she asked him. "Is there-"

Lelouch interrupted her from accidently seeing C.C. and ruining his cover by grabbing her cheeks and pulling her face back towards his. He held her about two inches from his own face. To anyone else, it appeared as though they would be kissing. Luckily, no one else was around to see it.

Lelouch glared daggers at the still-prancing immortal woman.

"CLICK!" The sound of a camera shutter was accompanied by a flash that Lelouch caught out of the corner of his eye.

"Now _this_ is good stuff." Lelouch heard the resident Queen of Ashford Academy, Milly. "I really should thank Nunnally for the heads-up."

Lelouch felt his spine tingle as both his and Kallen's eyes widened simultaneously as the two of them realized what had just happened to them. The worst possible scenario.

Milly had gotten blackmail on both of them.

_I'm going to kill that woman,_ Lelouch thought as he realized what C.C. did to him and Kallen. _She told Nunnally to tell Milly that she'd be able to finally get a 'royal secret' to use on me during lunch._ When he realized that, his gaze turned even colder on his roommate/lover.

C.C.'s golden eyes met Lelouch's gaze and she smiled her Cheshire smirk. She then waved at Lelouch, knowing full well what she just did to him, and walked off.

Lelouch hadn't noticed because he was still too focused on attempting to murder an immortal woman with his eyes, but Kallen's entire head was a deeper red than her hair at the moment. She also was frozen stiff as a board because of the embarrassment that the position someone had caught her in. When his violet eyes met with her sapphire ones, they both realized that neither one of them had moved since they heard the camera shutter go off.

Lelouch immediately removed his hands from Kallen's face and both of them retreated around ten steps from each other as quickly as they could.

Lelouch then spun around and scanned his surroundings for the blonde-haired gossip, but the Queen of Ashford was nowhere to be found.

"Probably went to get the pictures developed," Lelouch grumbled his thoughts out loud.

* * *

Kallen was still in shock from what had just happened to her.

Not only had that pervert Lelouch (granted he'd proven over the last week that he could be rather friendly) nearly stolen her first kiss from her, but the worst person possible had seen them. To make matters worse, that aforementioned blonde she-devil also apparently had taken a photo of her and Lelouch in such a compromising position.

Kallen's fists clenched and began to shake in anger at what Lelouch had just done to her.

_This is all _his_ fault,_ she told herself. _That Britannian bastard is the reason for all of this._

Images of the gossip and rumors that was about to transpire all throughout the Ashford Academy about her and that raven-haired boy flooded her mind. Kallen's 'friends' here would run wild with this. Every single one of them had essentially told her that they all had a crush on that closet-pervert standing in front of her.

"Kallen. Are you there?" Lelouch had apparently noticed that she was thinking about something.

"This is all your fault!" she squealed as she raised her shaking arm and pointed at him. "My life is about to officially end because of you!" she accused.

Lelouch sighed before he replied to her accusation. "No it's not," he assured her. "Kallen. Milly may be the Queen of gossip, but that was planned for me. I'm the one who's going to get the brunt of her wrath."

"What are you saying?" she screamed at him, her face still warm from what just happened. "That she-devil loves making people's lives hell! Why wouldn't she come after me?"

"Because she apparently planned it with Nunnally," Lelouch calmly told her. He apparently was used to Milly's antics because he wasn't fazed at all at what just happened. "Based on that I can safely presume that nobody else knows about it just yet. We can still run damage control and keep this from leaving the Student Council as long as we find Milly before she gets her snapshots developed and possesses the worst material possible."

_I can't believe this guy,_ Kallen thought. "What's with this whole 'we' business?" she told him. "Do you happen to have a mouse hiding out in your pocket?"

Lelouch appeared flabbergasted at Kallen's statement. "What do you mean?" he questioned back. "If you and I work together, we can find Milly faster and get this whole mess back under control before it escalates further."

Kallen grunted in frustration. "You're on your own," she dismissed the notion of the two of them working together. "You just said it yourself didn't you?" Kallen felt the grin growing on her face as she continued. "You were her target, not me. So as far as I'm concerned, this is your problem and I just got caught up in the crossfire." Kallen's grin was mischievous on her face as she outright refused to help him. _This is payback for that whole bathroom escapade._

Kallen saw Lelouch gaping at her as he turned on her heel with a "Hmph!" and walked away from the poor young man.

Even though she acted angry, which she still very much was. Kallen was still _far_ too embarrassed at the situation to show her face on this campus anymore. "I guess I can say I'm not feeling well and head back home for the day," she said to herself as she returned to the class building. "I guess this whole feigned, sickly personality has its own perks to it after all."

Kallen then went to her next scheduled classroom and found her next teacher reading a novel behind her desk. She then informed the middle-aged female teacher that she wasn't feeling very well, and was heading back home like her doctor instructed to in case she might have a relapse of her 'condition.' The middle-aged woman bought the sickly excuse and merely told Kallen to, "Get better quickly." Kallen thanked her teacher for 'understanding the situation' and then left the school building. She called for the chauffer that her father had prepared for her to pick her up and take her back to her father's house.

"Are you not feeling well Miss?" The chauffer seemed worried since he'd been called to pick up Kallen a few hours earlier than he usually did.

"I'm fine Jason," she assured the older man. "It's nothing that a little rest won't cure. But thank you for your concern. I really appreciate it."

Kallen wasn't lying either. Her middle-aged chauffer was one of the few people under her father's employ that knew her secret about being a half-Eleven but still treated her with nothing but kindness and genuine concern. Not some forced master-servant caring about their paycheck concern. Real, filial concern. Kallen believed that Jason saw her like a niece, and she loved him as if he was an uncle.

"If you say so Miss." Jason closed the door for her after she'd sat down in the back of the town-car.

Kallen let her chin rest on her palm as she leaned to her side and blankly stared out of the car's window. _I wonder what Ohgi's up to._ Kallen thought as the car pulled away from her Britannian school.

Kallen reached into her switchblade-concealing pink pouch and pulled out both her phone and signal scrambler. She hooked up the scrambler to her phone and dialed Ohgi's personal phone number.

"No," Ohgi told her flatly as he answered her call.

"I haven't even said anything yet," Kallen retorted into her phone.

Ohgi sighed at the other end of the line. "I'm not an idiot, Kallen," he accused her. "We just talked an hour ago and I told you everything about our group's activity. You did this with Naoto all the time. You're calling because you don't want to be in the Settlement and would rather be here, with us. The reason that you called this time is to try and weasel out of staying in the Settlement and come be with us for awhile. I'm telling you that your answer is a flat NO. This is an order from your superior. Stay out of the ghettos until I or Zero tells you otherwise." Ohgi then ended the call before Kallen could protest at all.

"Well fine then!" she yelled into her phone. "Be that way!" She angrily forced her phone to fold shut and threw it into her pouch.

"Is everything alright, Miss Kallen?" Jason had noticed her screaming into her phone.

Kallen sighed and forced herself to calm down from her angry streak. "Everything is fine Jason. I just got hung-up on is all."

Jason merely nodded silently to her and then re-focused on his driving once more.

_I'm so glad that he knows when not to pry,_ Kallen thought to herself about her chauffer.

She then went back to gazing out of the car's back window at nothing in particular as Jason continued to drive her back to her father's estate in Area Eleven.

She arrived after around a ten minute ride of staring at the large buildings of the Tokyo Settlement. She thought that she saw someone with long pink hair talking with a cat, but she quickly shook her head and dismissed the thought.

"Hey Jason," Kallen called to her chauffer as the vehicle passed through the front gate.

"Yes miss?" he answered.

"Is _she_ home?" Kallen asked him, referring to her bitch of a step-mother. _I have the evil step-mother,_ Kallen mused. _Now all I need is three evil step-sisters and I could be Cinderella._

Jason shook his head. "The Madam is currently out with her usual group." Jason was well-aware of that woman's private 'exploits.'

"Thank God for small miracles," Kallen said to nobody in particular.

Jason parked the car in the garage and then opened the car door for Kallen. "Welcome home, Miss," he said to her with a warm smile on his face.

Kallen climbed out of the door Jason opened for her before she thanked him for picking her up from school so early. She then entered the main foyer of her father's residence and ascended the stairs to her room.

She quickly stripped off her Ashford uniform and threw it on her bedroom's floor. "Why does the skirt have to be so short?" Kallen wondered as she tore off the black mini-skirt that was required to wear. "Whoever designed it must've had a leg fetish," she said as she threw it next to the golden uniform shirt on the floor.

(Back at Ashford Academy, Milly Ashford had just sneezed, interrupting her teacher's lecture on the conspiracy surrounding Napoleon's death.)

Kallen heard a knock on her bedroom's large door as she unhooked her light red bra. "Miss," Kallen's mother called through the door. "Jason told me that you'd returned home from school early today. Are you feeling well?"

"I'm fine!" she snapped. "I just needed a break is all."

"Very well," her mother calmly responded to her. "Please don't hesitate to call if you need anything."

"Yeah. Yeah," Kallen replied as she threw herself onto her large bed. _That blonde bitch had better not do what I think she will,_ Kallen though as she closed her eyes to take an afternoon nap.

However, right as she felt like she was going to drift off to sleep, someone knocked on her bedroom door once more. "Miss." It was the sad excuse of a woman that was her mother again. "The master has called and wishes to speak with you."

"What does dad want with me now?" Kallen groaned in frustration since she was about five seconds from falling asleep. "I'll be down in a moment," she called to her mother. "I'll take the call in his study."

"Very well," her mother answered. "I'll alert the master at once."

Kallen clambered out of her all-too-comfy bed and put on a loose-fitting shirt and a pair of her workout shorts to protect her modesty.

Kallen left her room and walked across the second floor landing to her father's private study. He'd forbidden absolutely everyone aside from Kallen and her mother from ever entering his private study. Kallen because he trusted her with all of the precious memories he kept in it and Kallen believed he let her mother in so that it wouldn't gather dust while he was away.

Her father's study wasn't a very large room, but it was very traditional Britannian. The walls were painted a golden yellow, full bookcases lined two of the walls, it had a small wooden fireplace which had two large red leather arm-back chairs next to it, and it had a large mahogany desk located in front of a grand window that showed the skyline above the Tokyo Settlement. On the desk rested numerous tools that her father would use every time he returned to Area Eleven, granted it had been around two years since he went back to the Homeland. On the desk were his private office phone, a stamp that he used which had the Stadtfelt coat-of-arms, and another stamp which had his signature on it. Her father used the second stamp only if he had a large pile of forms that all required his signature, Kallen still snickered whenever she remembered him after he'd gotten a serious case of writer's cramp. Kallen grabbed the wireless phone and sat down in one of the chairs by the study's private fireplace. She then pressed the button on the stand between the two chairs which would start a fire in the fireplace.

Kallen took a deep breath and pressed the "answer" button on the phone and placed the receiver to her ear.

"What's up old guy?" Kallen began the conversation energetically.

Kallen could feel her father's toothy grin at the end of the line, even though he was all the way over in Pendragon at the moment. "Not much flame-head," Patrick Stadtfelt shot back. "Just woke up and decided that you needed one of my trademark father-daughter lectures."

She rolled her eyes at her father's reply. "Please don't give me the whole 'birds and the bees' one again. I actually want to be able to go to sleep tonight without those nightmares coming back again. I just got rid of them."

"You mean the ones where I'm plowing your mother and you walk in on us doing the deed."

"Dad!" Kallen hysterically yelped into the phone.

She heard her father begin to laugh himself silly at the other end of the line. "I'm just kidding. But I do have a few things that I want to talk with you about."

"Regardless of how much you two ever tried to deny it. Naoto definitely took after you," Kallen said into the phone.

Patrick Stadtfelt started laughing again. "That he did. That he did. Now about what happened today during lunch."

Kallen felt her face flare red. "How do you already know about that?" she demanded into the receiver.

"Relax Kallen," her father assured her, speaking like a person trying to calm a bucking bronco. "I don't have anyone following you. If anything I feel sorry for any man brave or foolish enough to try and get you in a relationship."

"And just what's that supposed to mean," she fired at her father.

"Nothing. Nothing," her father said to her over the phone. "Reuben Ashford called me and said that his granddaughter caught you and a young man he knows kissing in the courtyard."

"We were not kissing!" Kallen screamed with her face flushed red again.

"That's not what I see here on this picture he sent me." Patrick Stadtfelt was toying with his daughter.

"Dad! Delete that right now!" Kallen hysterically demanded of her father.

"I don't know," her father said to her. "I think that this would be an even more embarrassing photo to show the first boy you bring home for us to meet than your baby photos. I mean, how many people get their first kiss caught on camera?"

"I'm telling you that WE. WERE. NOT. KISSING!" Kallen howled into the phone.

"Okay. Okay," Patrick tried to calm his daughter down. "I believe you. But to be honest, I'm a little disappointed. Your first kiss is a big event. Almost as big as your first time in bed. I remember my first time like it was yesterday. It was just after I graduated high school…"

"Dad!" Kallen stopped him before he could make her feel even more uncomfortable. "That is _not_ something you discuss with your children," she informed her father, her face steaming from the heat she was feeling, but the heat wasn't from the fire she'd started.

"I guess you're right about that," her father groaned. "You'll eventually find out for yourself how it feels. But, yeah, who is that young man that you NEARLY kissed?"

"He's the Vice President of the student council," Kallen told him. "His name is Lelouch Lamperouge and I am _never_ going to fall for someone like him."

"Oh?" her father sounded interested. "Do tell me how this young man made the mistake of falling out of your good graces."

Kallen felt her face heat up again as she recalled the shower encounter between her and Lelouch. "I don't want to talk about it," she sheepishly mumbled into the phone.

"Oh come on," Patrick Stadtfelt was persistent. "It's not like he saw you naked in the shower, right?"

Kallen was silent.

"Oh my god!" Her father apparently took her silence as a confession. "You're running around the bases backwards! You went all the way to third base before any others!"

"No I didn't!" Kallen defended herself. "It's just that I was covered in champagne, so I took a shower at the Student Council building. Lelouch then brought me some of his clothes since nobody else had clothes that would fit me."

"Sounds like a perfect gentleman to me."

Kallen snorted at that. "A perfect gentleman wouldn't stare."

Kallen had to move the phone away from her ear because her father was laughing so hard. "No they wouldn't," he admitted. "But a perfectly healthy seventeen-year-old boy would. Honestly Kallen. Where on earth did you steal your genes from? No one in my family looks anywhere near as good as you do."

Kallen shrugged. "I don't know," she told her dad. "I just think that God decided to take pity on you and let you have a beautiful child as an apology for your own looks."

"That hurt," her dad said over the phone without any pain present in his voice. "But that makes sense I guess."

Kallen couldn't help but laugh.

"Speaking of ugly people," Patrick said to her. "How's the old bag?"

Kallen knew that he was referring to the bride of his arranged marriage. "Still playing her role as the bitch of the household perfectly."

"I figured as much," he replied to his daughter. "She played that role a little too well for my tastes."

"Dad," Kallen began. "When are you going to act like a married man, albeit an unhappy one, and spend some time with your wife so she doesn't bitch me out at every opportunity."

"Better you than me," he playfully shot back. Why do you think I'm staying here in Pendragon? I can't stand to be in the same country as that unfaithful, disrespectful wench."

"Then why not kick her to the curb?" Kallen asked of her father. "If she's been unfaithful then doesn't it violate the pre-nup? She wouldn't get a red cent out of you."

Kallen heard her father sigh at the end of the line. "If only it were that simple Kallen. She may be a useless hag, but her family isn't. Over half of my assets are owned by her family. My marriage to that bitch is all that's keeping us afloat right now. Once I get out from underneath their thumb, though, then it becomes a completely different story."

"You know that I don't give a damn about the Stadtfelt fortune or noble title," Kallen told him.

"Yes," her father said to her. "But I also have a responsibility as the head of the family to take care of _my_ brothers and sisters. Just grin and bear it for a bit. Then we can live together again. All of us."

A tense aura enveloped Kallen after that.

"Kallen-" her father began before she cut him off.

"Don't," she said coldly. "I know what you're about to say and I don't want to hear it."

Patrick Stadtfelt sighed before he changed the subject. "There's another thing I wanted to ask you about."

"Go ahead."

There was a tense pause before he asked her, "What do you think of this 'Zero' character that just surfaced over there in Area Eleven."

Kallen's heart quickened its pace at his question. _Damn it,_ she thought to herself. _Calm down,_ she told herself. _You knew that he'd ask you about him sooner or later. Just tell him what you've rehearsed for the last week._ She took a deep breath before she told her father what she thought he wanted to hear. "You don't have to worry yourself. The heiress to the Stadtfelt family despises him for demeaning himself and resolving himself to terrorism."

Her answer was met with an odd silence on the other end of the call.

_There,_ she thought. _ I told him what he wanted to hear. He should buy it. After all, it's true enough. I'm not Kallen Stadtfelt whenever I'm with Ohgi and the others._

"Thanks for answering, Kallen Stadtfelt," her father said to her. Kallen felt herself stiffen at how he referred to her using her last name. "Now would you mind if I spoke with Kallen Kozuki? She's the one who I was asking anyway."

Kallen's eyes widened in shock. Her father knew. "What are you saying?" Her voice revealed just how nervous and worried she was about being found out by her father.

"Give me some credit Kallen," her father was serious. "Do you really think I didn't know what you, Naoto, and Ohgi were doing out in the ghetto?"

"I was hoping that you didn't," Kallen grumbled into the phone like a child who'd just been found with their hand in the cookie jar.

Her father sounded exhausted as he sighed once more. "Did Naoto ever tell you about the last night before he decided to run off and form his resistance cell?"

Kallen thought about it, but she couldn't recall Naoto and her ever discussing it. "No, he didn't. Matter-of-fact, he made me swear not to ask him about it. If I remember correctly, you and he had a private talk in your study."

"Yes, we did," her father affirmed. "And we took extreme pains to ensure that nobody else would be able to listen in on our conversation. Now get comfortable, because this wasn't a short talk that I can summarize in just a few words. This was a serious talk that took hours."

Kallen shifted herself around in her chair until she felt the most comfortable, with her sitting sideways in the chair, her knees pulled up to her chin. She then adjusted the fireplace's flame until it was a few degrees lower so that she wouldn't sweat herself away while listening to her father's story. "Okay," she told her father after adjusting everything. "You can start."

"Alright," Patrick began. "As you know, Naoto left four years ago, on his seventeenth birthday. But what you don't know is how he and I said our farewells. It was one night that will forever remained burned into the deepest depths of my memories.

"Naoto had requested the two of us to have our final conversation after he'd witnessed a close friend of his, Nagata if I remember right, get beaten by a Britannian police officer to the very edge of death. The only reason Nagata ended up surviving is because Naoto pulled his birth-name on the cop and strong-armed the hospital he'd taken Nagata to in order to get adequate treatment for his injuries. Nagata was diagnosed with six broken ribs, three more fractured ribs, a shattered clavicle, both of his tibias and fibulas were shattered, a broken left wrist, and both of his elbows were dislocated at the joint.

"Naoto was disgusted at what he'd seen. I was as well when he read me Nagata's diagnosis, showed me the X-rays he got his hands on, and showed me a photograph he'd taken of the poor young Japanese man who'd been put in a full-body cast and was placed on Intensive Care Life Support. It was nothing short of a miracle that Nagata's lungs, heart, and other vital organs sustained very minor damage.

"But what hit Naoto the worst wasn't the beating of his childhood friend, nor was it the police officer himself. What pissed Naoto off the worst was the way the hospital reacted. They asked Naoto why they should be bothered to save the life of some 'filthy Eleven.' They had completely degraded the Japanese into something that wasn't even human anymore.

"Naoto could live with discrimination. He realized early on that as long as people are different, there would be prejudice and discrimination present. He wasn't happy that they existed, but to try and rid the world of what makes people different is the greatest exercise in folly one could ever make. To fight to rid them from the world would be fighting against human nature in and of itself. Even you are prejudiced, Kallen.

"Naoto could stomach all of those, because no matter how much people discriminated, they would still acknowledge with each other that human life is still human life. Regardless of differences. However, what those doctors said to him changed Naoto. He couldn't let himself stand by any longer. He wasn't going to let someone say that his friend's life wasn't worth just as much as his own. Naoto called me while Nagata was still in operation and said that he needed to talk with me that same night.

"I'll never be able to forget the look in that young man's eyes when he walked into my study that night. They were sharper than that of a bird of prey's. His eyes were filled with a multitude of emotions. I saw anger, despair, disgust, and just about everything else. He was a man who'd come to realize his mission in life, and nobody was going to stop him.

"I won't lie Kallen. I thought that I'd lost my son that night when I first saw him. He wasn't the usual, 'brighten your day with his smile' Naoto any more. He'd become a man possessed. When I realized that, I broke down crying right then. He hadn't even said a word to me, and I was already mourning the loss of my son. I thought that my son. My kind, compassionate, perfect role-model of a son had died and had been replaced with what the Japanese call a 'Shinigami.'

"However, Naoto assured me that he was still the same son that I'd always had. It was just that he'd finally realized his purpose in life. Naoto told me, 'Dad. You always told me that the one thing you ever wanted me to be in life was happy, wasn't it?'

"I'd nodded and I tried to convince him to stay in the house with us. 'You can find happiness here,' I said to him. 'I'll help you discover a life where you can be happy.' I was begging him not to leave. I was deathly afraid that my son would be killed while fighting for his friends.

"What Naoto did next wasn't what I expected of him at all. I expected him to say that he wouldn't ever find happiness while he remained in my house, but that wasn't what he told me. Naoto shook his head at me and said, 'I have no right to find happiness here. It's not that I can't, it's that I don't want to. If I stay here and live comfortably in the lap of luxury while the people that I care about are treated like something less than human, I'd eventually grow to hate myself and the life that I chose. No, father, my true happiness won't be realized unless I at least try to change it.'

"When Naoto told me that, I felt as if I was hit with hundred of emotions all at the same time. They ranged all the way from pride and love towards a son who would place himself on the line and fight for what was right, to anger and resentment towards the very system that forced Naoto to change that way.

"In the end, I stood up from my desk chair and hugged my son. I knew that it was probably the last time that I would ever get the opportunity. I told him, 'I've never been prouder than I am right now. I've never been sadder than I am right now. I'd always dreaded this day's arrival, but I'm glad that it's finally here. Just remember that your family loves you dearly.'

"Naoto smiled his bright, dazzling smile. 'I know dad,' he told me. 'And I love them just as much. But it's time I did the right thing with my life. It's time for me to fight the injustice, and I refuse to ever stop until I win.'

"'I know,' I said to him with a few tears in my eyes. We stayed in our father-son embrace for a few more silent moments. Oh how I relished those few minutes with my son.

"After we'd ended our hug, something popped into my head. I asked him if he had any income set aside for his war against the injustice of the world. He admitted to me rather sheepishly that he hadn't actually given it any thought just yet. Naoto was planning on moving in with Ohgi until he'd settled down in the ghetto and was able to start his campaign.

"I then went over to the safe concealed behind the portrait of my parents and opened it. I then grabbed the access code to the trust fund that I'd set aside for Naoto until his twenty-first birthday and handed it to him. 'Clear it out,' I told him. 'It's yours now.'

"Naoto was a little confused to say the least at what I'd just handed him. I think that he expected me to just send him on his way with nothing more than my blessing in order to prevent the Stadtfelt name from being potentially linked with an anti-Britannian resistance cell. I looked him dead in the eyes and I told him, before he could protest, 'You're my son. I don't care what may or may not happen to me. All that matters to me is that I love my family with every ounce of my very being.'

"I then leaned over and asked him if he wanted to get one last chance to get his step-mother before he left. Of course Naoto accepted the chance to piss off that bitch one more time immediately. I then told him the combination to that old hag's personal safe and said that he could take whatever he thought would piss her off the worst. Of course the two of us agreed that he should take the jewelry box that she so loves and sell every single one of its contents.

"He and I shared a good laugh as both of us plotted out together just how and when he'd have his best chance to sneak in and snatch that wench's most valued possessions. The two of us then sat by the fire that I'd made and began to reminisce about all the fun that we all used to have together. We talked about when I caught the two of you trying to sneak out together in the middle of the night to go and hang out with Ohgi together, and the flimsy excuse that you used to try and protect Naoto from discipline. We talked about when you lost your first tooth and, because of your Legos spread out on your floor, how you ended up finding out about the truth about the Tooth Fairy. We talked and enjoyed ourselves like a father and his grown son should for another few hours. I only wish that it could have gone on longer.

"After we realized just how late it really was, we both stood up and shook hands. Neither of us really wanted that night to ever come to an end. The last night that I'd be able to see my son with my own two eyes, and the last night Naoto would be able to spend with his father.

"Naoto then asked me to take care of his little sister. 'I don't want her to choose the same path that I did,' he told me. 'I want her, at least, to be able to live a happy, simple life.' The two of us knew that you wouldn't if you had anything to say about it, so we both laughed at the absurdity of you trying to live a quiet life.

"My son then said to me, 'Dad. I want to thank you for everything you've always done for us. You've always been a great father, albeit a bit strict at times. Whether it was before or after the invasion and Second Great Pacific War, you were always protecting us all. It's because of you that we all survived the war and have this chance to live our lives. Thank you.'

"I involuntarily felt a tear appear and fall down my cheek. He'd told me what every father wishes that their children would tell them. The only thing that I could say back to him was, 'I love you, Naoto.'

"Naoto smiled as he started walking towards my study's door. Once he reached the door, he turned around and said the last and greatest words that I ever heard my son say to me. 'I love you too, dad.'

"He then left and I never saw my son again. The last thing my boy told me was that he loved me. When I heard what happened a year ago, I locked myself away. I didn't stir from my room until William came and dragged me out a week later to keep me from dying of depression."

As her father finished his story, Kallen didn't know what to think. "I never realized what happened," she finally found the ability to speak again. "I always thought that Naoto despised Britannia. I had no idea. He never told me why he decided to fight. The only thing that he ever told me was his goal. To liberate Japan." She let her legs slide back down the chair.

His father coughed twice before he spoke through the phone again. "Now, if you don't mind. Will you please answer my earlier question honestly? I get this nagging feeling that you've met this Zero. What do you think about him?"

As she thought about it, Kallen's eyes widened as she came to a sudden realization. "Oh my god," she breathed into the phone.

Her father sounded worried as he asked, "What is it Kallen?"

"I won't lie to you dad," she began. "I have met Zero. However, I never really understood what he really meant until just now."

"What did he tell you?"

"Something very similar to what Naoto told you," Kallen told her father. "He said that if we ever wanted to win we would have to 'destroy the foundations of Britannia,' and to 'fight for justice.' I thought that he was referring to the hardships that the Japanese people are suffering because of the occupation, but now I know what it was he really meant."

"And that is?" her father asked her curiously.

Kallen felt her fighting spirit rise as it came to life inside her. "That we don't just fight to free Japan," she revealed to her father. "We fight to end the tyranny that Britannia has wrought all throughout the world."

"Well then," her father paused. "Now tell me what you think about the man in the mask himself."

"I think that, should Naoto still be alive, that he and Zero would fight together." Kallen believed that whole-heartedly. _Now I know why Ohgi was so quick to trust him,_ she thought to herself. "I believe that Zero fights for the same reason that my brother decided to."

"Thank you," her father sounded relieved on the other end of the line. "I won't tell you how dangerous the path that you've chosen is, nor will I try and talk you away from it. You're ten times as stubborn as your brother and I wasn't able to talk him out of it. I'm also sure that you learned just how dangerous your path is from Naoto." There was a small pause before he added, "I'm proud of you, Kallen."

"Uh," Kallen was surprised at what her father just told her. "Thanks, I guess." She had no idea why, but she felt a bit embarrassed.

"Yo shorty!" Kallen heard someone else on her father's end of the call.

She couldn't help but smile when she recognized that voice. _Still the same old William,_ she thought.

"It's Kallen," her dad answered him. "And I'm not short. You're just a giant."

"Tell her Lily can't wait to see her again," William called through the phone. "It's been nearly five years since you brought her to visit."

"She wants to finish her schooling first," her father answered William. "I've got to go," he said into the phone. "William looks like he's about to drag me out of here by force."

Kallen smiled. "It's fine," she told him. "It was nice to talk to you again, dad."

"Same to you," he told her.

"What do we have here?" William sounded intrigued by something. "Who's that boy with Kallen?"

Kallen felt her face flare up once more. "Dad!" she screamed into the phone so loud that she heard her voice echo back into the phone. "I told you to delete that!"

"Gotta go," he said back to his daughter hurriedly. "Love you. Bye." Her father then hung up the phone.

"Anyone but him," Kallen groaned as she remembered just how William was. "If Milly ever met him, she'd end up star-struck. I wouldn't be surprised if she bowed to him and said, 'Teach me, Master.'"

Kallen put the receiver back on the charging station and returned back to her room as quickly as possible, her face still a bit red from having William get some bad material on her.

* * *

**A/N:** Welcome everyone to the third act! Knights and Princesses has officially begun!

In case you didn't guess, this third arc will cover everything leading up to the Narita battle, so it will probably take up at least four or five different chapters.

Kallen's father is my favorite character to write so far. Seeing as how he never makes an appearance in the show, and nothing is ever really said about him, I had free reign to make him however I saw fit. I know that I have apparently committed CG sacrilege in making a Britannian that isn't in canon _likeable_ for some reason or another, but I'll be damned if I assume that the only good Britannians were on the Student Council. I based Patrick Stadtfelt after my own father and grandfather. They both are loving, caring men that I admire with all of my heart. They also are quite the clowns whenever they feel like being one. This won't be the final appearance of Earl Patrick Stadtfelt, but I don't intend on actually making him a physical presence in my story at the moment.

The myserious William is Patrick Stadtfelt's best friend. I would have found it very difficult to believe that Kallen has never met any of her father's friends, so I wrote in one.

Also, just so you know, I never include anything in my story that is there just to be fluff. Everything in my story serves a purpose. I just won't tell you all the purpose until I feel like revealing it to you.

A few of the reviews have been semi-accurate in their guesses for the future plot of the story. This story will end up taking on a life of it's own soon enough. Then it won't just be semi-piggybacking off of canon for its plot.

Thank you all for reading my story here. Don't forget to leave a review for me. I do read them all, and any that actually intrigue me I will directly respond to.

Remember to share the story with others. Don't be selfish and try and keep it to yourselves.

Thanks again for reading. It's such an honor to have so many people already who love my story so much.

I'll see you all next time, in the second installment of Knights and Princesses.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Lelouch was fuming as he stormed into his private bedroom.

"What the HELL was that for!?" he demanded of his roommate as he threw his bedroom door open.

"Huh?" C.C. lazily looked up at him with small strings of mozzarella cheese connecting her mouth with the piece of pepperoni pizza that she'd been eating as he forced his way into his room.

"Don't you 'huh?' me woman!" he screamed at her. "You know full well what it was you did!"

C.C. swallowed the mouthful of her piece of pizza that she had been chewing on before responding to him calmly. "Whatever do you mean?" she innocently asked him. "I didn't do anything that you would disapprove of."

"You used my sister in order to get to me!" Lelouch accused her.

"I did not," she defended herself. "Nunnally decided to tell Milly about it all on her own. I made sure at breakfast to inform her that she could decline to tell Milly if she so wanted." The immortal woman then grew a smile that could rival that of the most devious fox. She then finished, "So if you feel like blaming someone for what happened at lunch, blame your beloved little sister."

Lelouch raised his hand to retort her claim, but he wasn't able to bring himself to say anything to the contrary. "I don't believe you," he finally said to the green-haired woman. It was the last and only thing left for him to say before he was forced to admit that he'd been completely and utterly defeated by C.C.. Because no matter how she acted, Lelouch knew with all of his being that C.C. would never manipulate Nunnally just to cause Lelouch more misery. However, Lelouch was very well aware of his younger sister's devious nature that she had been reluctant to nurture and reveal ever since both her legs and eyesight had been forcibly taken from her.

C.C. simply shrugged before she bit back into her precious pizza, tomato sauce spreading across her lips as she bit down into the cheese and cheap meat. "Believe what you want to," she told him after she'd finished chewing her bite. "But you know how your beloved, sweet little sister truly is underneath her kind and caring self. If there's anything that Nunnally made me believe this morning, it's that every sister absolutely loves to see their brothers panic a bit."

Lelouch felt his shoulders droop down because he knew that he was finally defeated completely with that. "Fine," he resigned to C.C.. "But do you have any idea how your little stunt earlier ruined my day?"

C.C. merely smiled and playfully winked at him and then went back to devouring the rest of her pizza.

Lelouch had been rather lucky after he'd started his search for the blonde gossip. He had finally located Milly leaving her grandfather's office about fifteen minutes after Kallen had abandoned him to his fate and disappeared. Kallen didn't even return to class after lunch. Lelouch figured that she was too embarrassed to show her face anywhere near him at the moment.

Milly had her textbook devious smile plastered all over her face as Lelouch had finally caught up to her. He didn't know how he managed to do it, but Lelouch found a way to convince his blonde friend to leave Kallen alone and not tease her since the two of them hadn't actually been kissing. Milly, however, pounced on the opportunity to focus all of her relentless teasing and attention on how to make him more miserable than possible. He'd also been able to convince the Ashford Queen to keep the photograph that she'd taken of him and Kallen away from a certain orange-haired not-so-secret-admirer of his in exchange for a favor. Lelouch felt a chilling sensation run up and down his spine, but in order to prevent Shirley from having an aneurism at seeing the damning photographic evidence, he reluctantly agreed to the condition that Milly had set before him. Lelouch couldn't rid himself of this dark, foreboding feeling that had taken up residence in his gut. He felt as if he'd just made a deal with the devil for a temporary reprieve from his fate, and if he knew Milly Ashford even half as well as he thought he did, then that favor was going to end up even worse than that snapshot ever would have been.

"So what did you have to give up in order to keep her from going on a rampage with her photo?" C.C. brought him back from his recent experience with her question.

"My soul," Lelouch answered her drearily.

"That bad, huh?"

"You've no idea," he replied to her. "I somehow managed to keep Kallen out of her sights for the moment, since she's probably too embarrassed to even show her face at the school for the moment. But in order to keep her from spreading the photo around the school like wildfire, I had to give her a favor." Lelouch allowed his head to droop down so that he could stare at his feet.

"That's what you get for flushing the toilet on me while I was in the shower," C.C. revealed to him why she'd decided to orchestrate today's events in such a way.

Lelouch raised his head and he blinked in surprise at what she'd just told him. "You mean THAT'S what this was for!?"

C.C. giggled as she nodded to confirm his inquiry.

"You started it!" he yelled at her. "I only did that because you knew that I was going to be forced to wear the shirt that you'd so conveniently covered in your scent."

"I have no idea what you're saying," she playfully denied. "I was absolutely certain that you would keep at least four shirts on hand."

"I usually do," Lelouch admitted through gritted teeth rather reluctantly. "But the one I had on in Shinjuku was ruined and in tatters because of our expedition in the ghetto. The other two were being cleaned by Sayoko. So the only shirt I had left to wear was the one you decided to put on before you took your shower.

"Not my fault," she told him as she waved her hand at him. "You always told me that you are 'always prepared,' but I guess that you still aren't as good as you say you are.

_How was I supposed to prepare for _you_?_ Lelouch silently thought to himself. Lelouch then sighed in exasperation._ I can't beat her,_ he realized. "Fine," he admitted to the immortal. "I wasn't prepared. Now can we please move on? You absolutely obliterated me with your response to my actions. I now know not to start anything with you, _ever_. Anything that I do to you, you will return back to me with something ten times worse than whatever I tried to do to you."

C.C. grinned at his words. "Good. So long as you know not to ever try something like that on me again."

"Yeah, yeah," Lelouch said to her as he fell onto his bed, the exhaustion of today's antics finally catching up to him.

C.C. swallowed the piece of pizza that she'd been munching on. She then asked her lover, "Isn't tomorrow supposed to be the day that Suzaku starts going to school here at Ashford?"

"Shit," was his reply from his pillow.

* * *

Everyone in the royal family always told her that the kindness she had always possessed was a curse instead of it being a gift, but Euphemia li Britannia refused to see it that way.

The pretty, pink-haired princess sat at her desk and stared at the document that had just been placed on her desk by a messenger ten minutes earlier.

She refused to believe that her sister would ever do such a thing.

_Why sister?_ she silently wondered to herself. _Why would you order something like this?_

Euphemia had taken her dinner break early so that she could attempt to make sense of her elder sister's reasoning for this.

_Are you doing this just to spite me?_ she pondered. Euphy then leaned back in her cushioned chair and stared up at the ceiling that had been painted to look like the night sky over Pendragon. _It isn't uncommon for people of nobility to mingle with the commoners, just frowned upon because of father's ridiculous ideology._

Euphemia stood up from her seat, grabbed the document that came directly from the Viceroy's personal office, and red the printing over one last time.

She then began to read what was printed on the paper out loud, so that she could confirm its contents with her own ears. She wanted to be sure that her eyes weren't playing tricks on her.

"Euphemia li Britannia," she recited off of the paper. "Under the direct order of the Viceroy of Area Eleven, her highness, Second Imperial Princess, Cornelia li Britannia, you are hereby placed under house arrest and forbidden to leave the Viceroy's Palace or the Area Eleven Government Bureau without a written allowance from the Viceroy herself for a period of one full week starting on the day in which you received this official notice of your punishment."

Euphemia then placed the official document back onto her personal desk after finishing confirming its contents aloud and began to pace back and forth in from of her desk.

"I can't believe that she decided to use the power of her office just to _ground_ me for a week!" Euphy screamed in frustration. "I mean, just who does she think she is, my mother?"

Euphy then heard a knock on her office's double doors. "Sub-Viceroy," her secretary called to her through the door. "Your seven o'clock meeting has arrived."

Euphemia looked at her schedule to see just who it was that she was going to be meeting in a few moments. She had been forced to meet with local nobles all day long and, to put it bluntly; she'd had it with all of those parasites. She was extremely relieved and grateful to see that the person she was scheduled to meet with was Reuben Ashford. Mr. Ashford was the Principle and head of the school which Euphy wished for Suzaku to begin attending so that the green-eyed boy could at least finish his primary education before he died.

She hated to admit it to herself, but the Third Princess had an ulterior motive to this seemingly innocent meeting between her and the head of the disgraced Ashford family. The Ashfords were once the primary, key backers to the rise of the Fifth Imperial Consort Marianne vi Britannia, otherwise known as the Commoner Queen amongst the non-noble Britannian subjects. Euphy refused to allow herself to believe that Lelouch and Nunnally, her dearest siblings aside from Cornelia, were actually dead. She also knew that if her two half-siblings did indeed survive the month-long war with Japan that resulted in Area Eleven's creation, then the Ashford family would be where Lelouch and Nunnally both sought asylum and protection against the prying eyes of the Emperor. While Euphy didn't blame her siblings for refusing to return to Pendragon after the debacle that was Marianne's assassination, she wanted to see them both once more, at least.

If anyone in the whole world would know the fate of both Lelouch and Nunnally, it would be Reuben Ashford. Euphy just hoped that she could gain his trust enough so that he would tell her so that she could finally stop her worrying.

Euphemia straightened out the creases and wrinkles that had accumulated on her dress over the long, boring day that she'd been forced to face. Her older sister handled all of the matters she deemed 'important' and had left the matters that she thought that were 'unworthy of the office of the Viceroy' to be handled by the Sub-Viceroy. While Euphy loved her sister dearly, her patience of a saint was wearing thin from having to deal with all of those blood-suckers that all clung onto their titles of nobility.

She then let out a long, deep sigh to help sturdy her resolve. _This is the last one,_ she told herself. _But this is, without a doubt, the most important one. In more ways than one._

Euphemia then gazed at the mirror in her office to make sure that she looked the part of how a Sub-Viceroy and Third Princess should. If anything, those years spent in etiquette schooling made her know how to look the part.

After confirming with herself that she was presentable to other eyes, she answered her secretary's call through the door. "You can send him in."

Euphemia remained standing, with her hands crossed in front of her hips, when the door to the Sub-Viceroy's office was pushed open.

An older gentleman wearing a crisp, blue business suit with a black tie that had the Ashford family coat-of-arms emblazoned onto it entered into her simple office. The man was balding, that much was obvious to anyone else, but what remained of his grey-streaked hair was combed over in a passable fashion. The man's piercing, hardened green eyes were what stood out the most about the older gentleman, however. This was a man with a truly noble atmosphere surrounding him.

_He clearly hasn't lost his touch over the years,_ Euphemia noted to herself as she took in the sight of the best possible lead to finding her long-lost half-siblings in Area Eleven.

Reuben Ashford knelt down on one knee after he'd entered, his arm crossed across his chest, and gaze down in the traditional way of greeting royalty outside of the royal family. "Princess," the elderly man began. Even his voice still gave of a distinguishing noble tone to it. "How may I serve you?"

"Well first," Euphemia told him. "You may refer to me as either Sub-Viceroy or Euphemia. I hate it when people call me 'Princess.' I had no control over who gave birth to me. Next, you can stand up straight so that the two of us may speak as normal human beings with each other."

"Very well Sub-Viceroy," Reuben acknowledged her request. The elderly gentleman then stood up and looked at Euphemia as if he couldn't remember just where he'd seen her before.

"The Aries Villa," she answered his un-asked question. "We met a few times before at Empress Marianne's home. Granted I was still a small girl the last time we saw each other." Euphemia then added on, "And you may speak frankly during the entire duration of this meeting. I swear upon my name, Euphemia li Britannia, that no harm will ever come to you for speaking in an informal way to me during our time here. I despise dealing with suck-ups."

Reuben's hardened eyes then softened a bit and a small smile graced his face. "So you were the one that Nunnally would always join up with and cause Lelouch such misery."

Euphy giggled as she began to recall both her and Nunnally's fun at teasing and tormenting the raven-haired prince that was their older brother. "Yep. That was me." She then motioned with her hand to the cushioned seat in front of her desk. "Would you care to take a seat? I didn't just call you to reminisce about the past."

Reuben nodded and accepted her offer. "Thank you. My old joints could use a good rest. Being the Principle of a school full of hormonal teenagers gives you very little time to rest," he said to her as he sat down in the offered cushioned chair.

Euphemia then took her own seat behind the desk that she had been sitting at for closing in on ten hours now. "Did Stella inform you as to why I asked you to come visit me?" she asked her guest. Stella was the name of the secretary that Cornelia had assigned to Euphemia's office.

Reuben shook his head. "I was only told that you wished to speak with me, Sub-Viceroy."

"Jeez," she sighed. "Very well then. I called you here because I would like you to admit an Honorary Britannian into your school."

Reuben's eyes widened a tiny smidgen. That small amount wouldn't have been noticed to the untrained eye, but Euphemia li Britannia had been trained in recognizing body language.

"I don't really mind it," Reuben finally told her. "But are you really certain about this? Ashford Academy may be considered rather liberal when you compare it to other schools in Tokyo, but I can't say with any certainty that the Honorary Britannian will be well-received by the rest of the student-body."

"I assure you that he will be perfectly fine," Euphemia informed the concerned gentleman. "This young man was raised in a noble Japanese house and is very well-schooled in all forms of etiquette. He also will not ever raise a hand in violence to harm another student, regardless of whatever may or may not happen to him."

Reuben Ashford leaned over her desk, a curious look in his eye. He then asked Euphemia, "Just who is this young man?"

"Suzaku Kururugi," she informed him.

The older man nodded his head and then straightened back into his seat. "Very well," he said. "I've heard of the young man. I can allow him into the school. I am also able to ensure that he comes to no bodily harm while he is a student at Ashford Academy."

_This is my chance,_ Euphy realized as she remembered that Lelouch and Nunnally had been sent to live with the Kururugi's after Marianne's assassination. "Might I enquire as to how you know about Mr. Kururugi?" she asked of Reuben Ashford.

"I pay attention to the news," he revealed to her with practiced ease. "I watched that farce that Lord Gottwald was attempting to pass off as justice rather closely. I was curious about the young man accused of murdering Prince Clovis, so I called in a few favors I'd built up over the years and did a bit of research on the son of a man like Genbu Kururugi."

_He's good,_ Euphemia noted. _He doesn't show any sign to the contrary anywhere on his body,_ Euphemia thought as she looked for any sign that he was hiding something. _However, my gut is telling me that he knows more than he'll reveal to me right now._ She allowed the silence to remain for a brief moment between them before she asked him, "Did my brother ever ask for you to meet with him?"

"Clovis?" he asked. Reuben then shook his head to her. "No. Clovis never asked to speak with me. Might I ask why you would ask me that?"

"You were a close friend of Lady Marianne, whom he both loved and admired," she answered him smoothly. "He came here to Area Eleven initially to search for both Lelouch and Nunnally. Didn't you know?"

"No, I didn't," Reuben informed her. "Did his search ever produce any results?"

Euphemia shook her head slowly. "My brother and sister's bodies were never found," she told the older Ashford. "Father pronounced them both dead after three months of searching without a single lead."

"I see."

Euphy then placed her hand over her heart and continued her story. "But I believe that the two of them are still alive and well out there. I believe that the two of them are both living as well and best that they can out there."

"I admire your optimism," Reuben said to her.

"Lelouch always told me that it was my best quality," she replied with a warm smile. "Would you mind helping me search for them?"

Reuben smiled a gentle smile. "You miss them, don't you?"

Euphy nodded to him. "Dearly."

Reuben Ashford then nodded twice. "I will help you in your search for them," he told Euphy. "But I think that, should we actually find them, we ask them if they want to return to Pendragon at all." Reuben was apparently well-aware of the circumstances that are still surrounding the assassination of Lady Marianne.

Euphemia nodded once more. "I concur." She then stood up from her chair. "I thank you for meeting with me Mr. Ashford," she said to him as she extended her hand.

Reuben then stood up himself and grasped her small hand with his large one. "It was my pleasure Sub-Viceroy Euphemia. When will Mr. Kururugi begin attending classes?"

The two of them both separated their hands before Euphemia answered him. "He will begin to attend classes tomorrow. Please take care of him."

"I will," Reuben assured her. He then turned and began to walk towards the door to the Sub-Viceroy's office.

"Oh," Euphy called to him as he left, "and Mr. Ashford?"

"Yes, Sub-Viceroy," he answered as he reached the door.

Euphy smirked as she said, "If you happen to find Lelouch first, please tell him that Cornelia and I both miss and love him greatly."

"I'll do just that," Reuben replied to her.

Reuben Ashford then took his leave from the Sub-Viceroy's office, leaving Euphy alone as he closed the door behind him.

Euphy then turned around and walked over to stare out of her office's grand window that overlooked the entirety of the Tokyo Settlement.

She then lightly touched the glass with her palm and said, "I only wish that I knew where you were so I could tell you myself, Lelouch."

* * *

Lelouch watched his oldest friend introduce himself to the rest of the class that he'd be attending while at Ashford once more.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Suzaku finished his introduction.

Lelouch felt his fist clench tight and his teeth grit together as he remembered all of the indirect abuse that the brown-haired Japanese youth was forced to endure the last time because of Lelouch's inaction.

_Not this time,_ Lelouch swore to himself as the teacher began to search for a place to put Suzaku.

Lelouch then turned to his left and quietly 'asked' the female student to move one more spot away, thus leaving an empty seat right next to him for Suzaku. The young woman immediately complied and moved.

The dark-haired prince-in-hiding then stood up and said, "Teacher. Suzaku can sit right here next to me."

Every person in the class let out a collective gasp. Lelouch saw Kallen eyeing him with a suspicious glint in her eyes once more, but he could deal with her suspiciousness later. Rivalz flipped around in his seat in front of Lelouch and was looking at his friend as if Lelouch had just sprouted a second head on his shoulders.

"Are you sure about this?" the young adult asked of his lazy student.

Lelouch nodded once. "How could I not?" he asked of the entire class. "Suzaku is a close friend of mine that I haven't seen for nearly seven years."

He could feel Suzaku's burning glare, warning him to tread lightly in order to protect Lelouch's secret of his royal bloodline.

_As if I'm stupid enough to do that,_ Lelouch thought sarcastically.

Their teacher simply nodded after Lelouch's admission, but didn't try and make anything more of the situation. "Very well," the teacher said to Lelouch. "Mr. Kururugi will take the seat next to Lelouch."

Suzaku nodded to the teacher and then proceeded to walk down the aisle between the desks. Every pair of eyes watched as the green-eyed young man took his seat next to the resident school heartthrob.

"Lelouch-" Suzaku began in a whisper before his best friend cut him off.

"Not now," Lelouch hissed quietly as the teacher began his lecture about how Napoleon began his rise to power and the eventual forming of the E.U. "I promise that I'll explain everything to you later."

Suzaku looked like he wanted to ask more of his friend, but he simply nodded and began to take his notes on the lecture of the teacher.

_I won't let it happen again,_ Lelouch swore to himself as he remembered Suzaku's betrayal.

The day passed without another word being spoken between the two of them. Everyone else seemed to be avoiding the pair of young men like the plague until Lelouch decided to offer up a good explanation as to how he was old friends with an Honorary Britannian. Not to mention the same Honorary Britannian that was suspicious enough to be accused of murdering their beloved Viceroy and Third Prince.

Lelouch texted Milly during the lunch break to call a Student Council meeting after school so that Lelouch could give them all a satisfactory reason for his actions today. He then was forced to promise the blonde gossip that he would tell her the real truth behind him being friends with Suzaku after the two of them were away from any prying eyes and why he wanted to risk being found out for Suzaku.

_That's going to be where I will have to be careful,_ Lelouch thought as he agreed to Milly's conditions. _Milly's smarter than she appears and it's far too soon to tell her that I'm Zero._

The entire Student Council: Milly, Lelouch, Nina, Kallen, Shirley, and Rivalz were all gathered together with Suzaku in the Student Council office with Suzaku so that their Vice-President would inform them as to just how he and Suzaku came to know each other.

"Alright," Lelouch began as everyone took their assigned seats. Suzaku took the seat assigned to Lelouch while his dark-haired friend spun a tale to explain how the two of them met. "Before I begin, does anyone feel nervous or anxious about Suzaku's presence?" He eyed Nina.

Nina was fidgeting in her seat but didn't speak up, Kallen and Milly were both focusing their suspicious stares on the tale-giver, Shirley seemed to just take everything in stride with her bubbly personality, and Rivalz was silent with his hands clasped together on the table in front of him. Nobody, however, spoke out to protest Suzaku's presence in the room.

"Suzaku," Lelouch called to the Japanese young man.

"Yes Lelouch?" Suzaku answered.

"I would like you to refrain from speaking until I have explained everything to them," Lelouch ordered his friend with a stare.

Suzaku caught his implied meaning and then reluctantly nodded to his friend.

"Okay," Lelouch began to recite the story that he'd prepared throughout the day to, hopefully, quell any suspicious feelings about how he and Suzaku knew each other. "Because Kallen doesn't know this just yet, I'll say it again. Nunnally and I lived here before Area Eleven was ever founded.

"Our parents left the homeland in order to set-up a possible Sakuradite distribution agency before anyone else could before them, so our family came to Japan around eight years ago.

"Suzaku and I first met one day while I was out shopping for my parents in downtown Tokyo. After I'd grabbed everything that my parents asked me to buy for them, I happened to come upon a group of Japanese High School delinquents who hated me for no other reason than that I was Britannian. The group of three came at me and attacked me un-provoked.

"I was cowering in a corner of a dark alleyway as they closed in on me. One of them, the leader I think, had out a bright, shining switchblade knife. Another one of them was holding a large metal chain, and the last one was using a wooden baseball bat. I was certain that, at the very least, I was going to be hospitalized and crippled had that group not been stopped first.

"Suzaku told me that he had snuck away from his kendo lessons with his sensei when he came upon the scene. The first thing that Suzaku noticed was the three, large delinquents ganging up on a small kid, and he then leapt into action to defend someone that was as helpless as I was.

"Suzaku still had his bamboo practice sword from his kendo lessons with him, so dispatching the group of untrained delinquents was little more than child's-play for him.

"After he'd fought off the group of older bullies, Suzaku came over and helped me up. He then asked me if I was okay and if that group had done any damage before he showed up. I was still shaking and too terrified from my experience to bring myself to say anything, so I only nodded to him that I was, indeed fine and in one piece.

"He then asked me if I lived anywhere nearby. I found my ability to speak after another few seconds and told him where it was that I lived. Suzaku then accompanied me back to my parent's house, where he then told me his name. I then returned the courtesy and thanked him for saving me from a very nasty fate. The two of us then went our separate ways.

"When I told my parents what happened, they were absolutely furious that I had been targeted by those delinquents. They didn't want their beloved son to end up like his younger sister for no reason other than blatant racism. Once I told them about Suzaku and how he saved me (now remember, I had no idea just who he really was at the time) they became completely hysterical. They weren't angry at Suzaku, they were angry at me for not showing the proper amount of respect to the Prime Minister of Japan's only child.

"About another week passed by before a messenger from the Kururugi household came to our house and served my parents a summons for our entire family to appear before the Prime Minister and his family. My parents were panicking about the possibility of them having their visas revoked and being forced to move back to the homeland before their business venture could even begin to take off, but I was more anxious about meeting my savior again now that I knew who he really was.

"We all arrived at the Kururugi Mansion on the outskirts of Tokyo together and were then ushered into a dining room set to entertain seven people. All of us in my family had no idea as to what we were supposed to do, so we just stood there and awaited the arrival of our hosts.

"About five minutes later, Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi, his wife, and his son all entered the dining room together. The Prime Minister then informed my parents that Suzaku had managed to convince his parents to hold this dinner with our family because his son wanted to personally check up on his friend.

"My parents were a bit surprised at that, to say the least. I was ecstatic that I apparently already had a friend in Japan, even though I hadn't even been in the country for an entire month just yet.

"After everyone conducted their introductions, all of us walked over to the table and we all enjoyed a great collection of authentic Japanese cuisine. I swear that Sayoko must have learned from the personal chefs of the Prime Minister.

"After the dinner, Genbu asked both me and Nunnally if the two of us would mind being Suzaku's friend, seeing as how he had never apparently taken a liking to anyone else before. We both immediately accepted the opportunity and our parents set up a schedule for all of us to meet and spend time together.

"A few months passed by that way and Suzaku essentially became like a brother to Nunnally and me. Suzaku taught us how to read and speak Japanese just like a native to the tongue. I taught him how to play chess and he still has yet to beat me at it.

"However, August tenth came around and everything changed overnight.

"My parents were both killed in a random bombing done by the Britannian military and Nunnally and I were left utterly alone. We managed to survive for around a week on our own before I collapsed due to complete bodily exhaustion and dehydration. The last thing I remember seeing before I blacked out completely was Nunnally crying, telling me to stand up.

"Again, I was saved by Suzaku. He was being carried to one of his family's many safe houses by General Katase when he saw me and Nunnally on the side of the road. He ordered his father's general to grab me and my sister and also carry the two of us with him to the safe house.

"I woke up in a hospital bed, with Nunnally holding onto my hand next to me. She then told me about how Suzaku had saved us, and I can't tell you how relieved I was that Nunnally and I had been saved. I was deathly afraid that I wouldn't ever wake up again.

"We spent the rest of the war holed up in the safe house. It's thanks to Suzaku that Nunnally and I are still alive and well today. I owe him my life and he is like a brother to me and Nunnally," Lelouch finished. "So please treat him just like you would as if he is my real brother."

There was a small pause in the room as Lelouch finished his fabrication before chaos erupted from the Student Council.

Shirley and Rivalz were immediately swooning over the Japanese youth and begging him to be their friend as well, Suzaku appeared to be dazed and confused but relieved at Lelouch's story, Milly and Kallen both seemed to be attempting to go over his tale in their heads and try to separate fact from fiction, and Nina looked down into her hands as her shame for being so afraid of Suzaku earlier washed over her.

"So Madam President," Lelouch called over to Milly.

"Yes, Vice President?" the blonde woman answered.

"Would you please allow Suzaku to join the Student Council?" Lelouch asked of his longtime friend.

Milly acted like she was thinking about it for another moment before she clapped her hands together energetically. "I don't see why not!" she exclaimed over the noise in the room. She then turned and faced the Japanese young man and yelled over everyone, "Welcome to the Ashford Academy Student Council Suzaku!"

All the members then walked over to the green-eyed youth and introduced themselves to the newest council member once more.

_Welcome back. My friend._

* * *

"Bad kitty," C.C. said to Arthur as the mangy cat tried to get away with Lelouch's mask once more.

The immortal woman picked up the cat, took off Zero's mask, and then placed the cat on the bed she shared with Lelouch. The cat then curled up into a ball on top of the covers and began to silently purr as it drifted off to sleep.

"The only bright side to this," C.C. said to herself as she hid Lelouch's mask once more, "is that I get my Cheese-kun back tomorrow."

* * *

**A/N: **Again, welcome back to my story.

I'm sorry for any grammar errors. I do go over my chapters myself, but I don't catch every one. This chapter is un-beta'd after I typed it up because my beta left early to go back home for Spring Break.

I know that a lot of you are eagerly awaiting the battle between Lelouch and Cornelia in the Saitama ghetto, and that's going to be coming up next. However, I don't know if it will only be one chapter or two. The same will go for the Kawaguchi hotel jacking. So I probably won't post those until I've written those respective scenes in their entirety before I decide to divide them up as either one or two chapters. That means that there may not be a new chapter next weekend. But I assure you that I will get those scenes written and posted as quickly as I can. Another factor to take in is that Spring Break is this upcoming week, so I'll be heading back home for the week to try and earn some cash and spend some time with my family.

This is, aside from the prologue, the shortest chapter that I've posted so far. I kinda wished that it would have ended up being longer, it's just that the chapter didn't really want to be written. It was quite difficult to think up a way to peacefully integrate Suzaku into Ashford without using the whole "Stolen Mask" incident in canon. I really respect all of those who did a time-travel story and managed to accomplish it.

Also, I don't plan on getting into a habit of having an extended monologue like I have had in the past two chapters in every chapter. It's just that is how these chapters have turned out.

All of your reviews are greatly appreciated. Remember to leave one, guest or not. Just don't leave me any spam please!

Thanks again for reading! Don't forget to share! (I feel like my father when he scolded me for being selfish way back when I was a wee lad for saying this so many times)

Thanks again! See you next time.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

Lelouch sat on one of the dozens of benches scattered throughout the Ashford Academy courtyard while he was eating the lunch that his favorite kunoichi/maid, Sayoko, had personally prepared for him. Right next to the prince, eating his own lunch, was Lelouch's Japanese best friend, Suzaku Kururugi.

Almost a week had passed since Suzaku had been inducted into the Ashford Student Council by Milly, and the story that Lelouch had concocted about how he and Suzaku both knew each other and became such good friends had spread all throughout the student body like wildfire. Suzaku had achieved the status of the 'local Ashford Celebrity,' much to the green-eyed youth's own chagrin. For nearly the entire time since Suzaku began to attend classes, the young Japanese man had been perpetually pestered by Lelouch's fangirls for information about the prince-in-hiding's past. Luckily, Suzaku was able to get rid of those information-seekers by simply informing them all that he wouldn't reveal anything about his dark-haired friend without Lelouch's permission to talk about his past first.

The two friends hadn't been able to get any alone time while they were on campus during the period of Suzaku's celebrity status to talk about what they both felt they needed to discuss with the other. With Suzaku being constantly tailed by the Ashford students while being on campus and being off handling his military duties the rest of the time, neither of the friends had found the chance to bring up what happened to them in Shinjuku yet.

Thankfully, the 'Suzaku Celebrity' status had finally died down, the normal stalkers had moved on with their own pathetic lives, and the White Knight and the Black King had the chance to finally sit down and have a private conversation between themselves at long last.

Suzaku started off the conversation between them. "So how have you been Lelouch?" he asked politely.

The former Demon Emperor swallowed the bite of bread, peanut butter, and strawberry jelly before answering his longtime best friend. "Surviving," he answered. "Nunnally and I came to the Ashfords right after the three of us got separated seven years ago. We've been here ever since. How have you handled yourself the last seven years?"

Suzaku looked at the partly cloudy blue sky with a distant look in his eyes. "My family disowned me about two years ago," the Japanese youth informed the Britannian Prince.

Lelouch was already well-aware of this fact, but acted surprised nonetheless as Suzaku revealed his family status. "I'm guessing that was when you enlisted," he stated to Suzaku.

Suzaku nodded, still looking up at the snow-white clouds overhead as they passed over them slowly, like they hadn't a care in the world. "The only one who even tries to talk to me anymore is my younger cousin, Kaguya." The Honorary Britannian soldier then looked back at his princely friend. "Do you remember her?"

"How could I forget?" Lelouch replied playfully. _For Christ's sake,_ he thought to himself, _that bundle of joy tried to marry me even after I became Zero. I could never be rid of her._

"I guess you have a point there," Suzaku chuckled.

"You still a soldier?" the prince asked the Lancelot's pilot.

"I am but I'm not," the Japanese young man answered vaguely.

"Explain," Lelouch gently encouraged further explanation from the green-eyed pilot.

"I'm still enlisted," Suzaku explained," but I'm in the Engineering department now."

"So what do you do there?" Lelouch probed for information about the A.S.E.E.C. and Lloyd's mad exploits.

"I can't really say," Suzaku answered hesitantly.

Lelouch nodded at his friend. "I can respect that," he told Suzaku. "But I believe that I have an idea as to what your role really is there."

"Oh?" Suzaku cocked an eyebrow at his friend. "Do share your theory. Your theories were always interesting and entertaining to listen to. I haven't heard any in absolutely forever, and I'm just _dying_ to hear another."

Lelouch shrugged. _He asked for it,_ he reasoned with himself. Lelouch's violet eyes then bored into the side of Suzaku's head and he told the Japanese young man, "I think that you're the test subject and guinea pig for whatever it is that they develop in the Engineering Corps."

Suzaku spit out the soda that he'd been drinking in such a hard, solid stream that Lelouch swore he saw a rainbow appear. "How-how did you know?" Suzaku sputtered out, soda dripping from the corners of his lips.

Lelouch simply smirked at him. "A few things," he answered aloud vaguely. _Most of which I can't tell you,_ he silently finished.

"Do tell," the Britannian soldier encouraged an explanation from Lelouch. "You just used the exact same words my boss used when I first met him and he explained what I would be doing."

The raven-haired prince smirked to himself at Suzaku's statement. He then explained his reasoning to his oldest friend, "The first clue would be that I know you very, very well Suzaku. You're just an Eleven to the Britannian military, regardless of your Honorary Citizenship, so therefore you are considered expendable in the eyes of the higher-ups. You also have never possessed the patience required, nor have you ever been smart enough to actually work in the development department of the Britannian Military Engineering Corps. I may hate Britannia, but they damn sure have some bright minds working for them."

Suzaku stared at his friend slack-jawed, but Lelouch wasn't done explaining just yet.

"You have always been one to prefer action over everything," Lelouch went on, "and I know that the official Britannian Military policy is 'Numbers may never, under any circumstances, obtain Knight status and be trained to be effective in Knightmare combat.' However, you have always liked to try and find a way to get whatever it is that you want, even if you just-so-happen to use a miniscule loophole in the rules to achieve your ambitions. You also wouldn't have told me that you were _in_ the Engineering department if you were simply delegated to bodyguard duty or something similar to that. The grunt work is usually outsourced and handled by an outside source other than the group of scientists and engineers after-all.

"So based on everything that I know about both yourself and the Britannian Military, I am able to make an educated guess as to what your role in the Engineering Corps really is. All that time running the system wasn't for nothing I guess."

"Well I'll be," Suzaku finally gathered his wits about him after his best friend of over seven years just accurately deduced and summarized what his role amongst the A.S.E.E.C. and the Lancelot really was. "You're right on all accounts," he told Lelouch. "But I really can't tell you what is being developed."

Lelouch shrugged once more. "I figured as much," he said to Suzaku. _I already know everything that there is to know about Lloyd, Cecile, and the Lancelot anyways._ "It must be fairly high-spec if you have to keep it under such tight wraps."

"Oh it is," Suzaku assured his old-time friend. "Oh! That reminds me. What happened to the girl?"

"Which one?" he responded playfully. "Because I see Milly, Kallen, Shirley, Linette…" Lelouch listed.

"You know which one I'm talking about you imbecile," Suzaku playfully chided his friend. "The green-haired girl from the capsule in Shinjuku. Do you know what happened to her?"

_He just _had_ to ask didn't he? _Lelouch thought sarcastically. "I don't really know what happened to her after the two of us separated, but I do know that Clovis deserved what he got from Zero after she told me what my _older brother_ had been doing to her," Lelouch told his friend, anger rising in his voice. He'd spat out 'older brother' like it was a curse.

Both of Suzaku's eyebrows shot upwards and hid underneath his long brown bangs as he heard that. "What do you mean?" Suzaku asked him curiously. "What was Clovis doing to that girl?"

"Human experimentation," Lelouch spat out venomously. "I always knew that Clovis had a dark side to him that he kept hidden from everyone else in the world, but I would gladly kill him myself for what she told me about what he did to her."

"Lelouch. What did Clovis do to her?"

Lelouch stared into his friends emerald-green eyes. He saw nothing but concern in Suzaku's green orbs; whether for himself or C.C. Lelouch didn't know. "I won't tell you," he averted his gaze from his longtime friend.

"Why not?"

"Because _I _got nightmares," Lelouch whispered. "All I will tell you is that Clovis deserved a death far more gruesome and painful than being drawn-and-quartered for what she told me that blonde demon did to her," Lelouch said, his voice steadily rising as he spoke.

Suzaku obviously wished to ask more of Lelouch, but the Japanese young man knew that look in Lelouch's eyes all too well. The fire present in those violent spheres that he hadn't seen since Lelouch gave his vow to destroy his homeland. Suzaku decided that Lelouch would tell him more if the prince really wanted to, so Suzaku decided to let it be for now and drop the matter altogether for the moment.

"Hey Lulu, Suzaku!" Shirley called to the pair of young men from the window above them. "You'd better get moving! Class starts in about three minutes!"

Lelouch and Suzaku's eyes widened simultaneously. "Shit!" they both said at the same time.

The two of them then both sprinted to their next shared class, with Lelouch cursing his lack of muscles and weak body as he collapsed into his seat next to Suzaku.

"You know Lelouch-" Suzaku began teasingly.

"Shove it you damned exercise nut," Lelouch said in-between his gasps for air into his burning lungs.

* * *

"Any new orders from Zero yet?" Kallen whispered into her phone.

"None yet," Ohgi told her from their group's safehouse. "But I've heard whispers that Cornelia's next target is going to be the Yamato Alliance."

"I see then." Kallen got up from her bed in her father's Area Eleven estate and walked over to the window. "Who was hit today?"

"The Blood of the Samurai Faction," Ohgi confirmed what she'd heard on the news earlier that day. "I told Zero that it was only a matter of time before she came after all of us, but Zero simply told me to keep our heads low and said to be patient for the time being."

"I see," Kallen whispered in response as she witnessed the sky over the Tokyo Settlement mixed in shades of orange, yellow, and purple due to the setting sun in the west. "Hey Ohgi?" she asked.

"What is it Kallen?"

Kallen grit her teeth. _I need to know for sure,_ she reminded herself. "Who do you see whenever you look at Zero?" she asked.

"Why do you ask?" Ohgi asked her, his voice betraying his curiosity.

"It's just that…" Kallen began. "Well… I had a talk with my dad last week and he told me some things that I didn't know before. I want to know if I'm right about this or not."

Kallen heard Ohgi's sigh on the other end of the line. "I see," he finally responded into the phone. "I guess that it was about time that you knew the truth about what Naoto really wanted to do anyways. You were probably curious as to why I trusted Zero with Naoto's dream to eventually free Japan, weren't you?"

"I was," Kallen admitted rather sheepishly.

"The reason I trusted Zero," Ohgi told her, "is because every single time I look into that mask now, I see Naoto. I see all of what he wanted and stood for in Zero."

"Thanks Ohgi," Kallen said as she slipped out of her yellow bathrobe and sat on her bed.

"No problem Kallen," Ohgi said from the safehouse. "Oh, and Kallen?"

"What is it Ohgi?"

"Stay safe." Kallen could hear the concern layered in his voice.

"I will," she assured her elder-brother figure.

"Alright then," Ohgi said, energy returning to his voice. "I've gotta be going then. I think Inoue's about to kill Tamaki for getting drunk again while on sentry duty."

Kallen felt a smile grow on her face at her brother's group member's antics. "Tell everyone I said hi. Also, make sure Tamaki doesn't get himself killed. I need a punching back when I get back to the ghettos."

"Will do," Ohgi chuckled. "Bye then."

"Later Ohgi."

Kallen closed her cell phone as the conversation between her and Ohgi came to an end, took out the signal scrambler she'd gotten from Naoto, and placed both the scrambler and the phone on her bedside nightstand.

She then slipped on a black, loose fitting T-shirt and a pair of red shorts and left her room to go grab a bite to eat before she decided to try and sleep for the night.

"Is something the matter Miss?"

Kallen cringed as her mother noticed her leaving her room. _The one person I _really_ don't want to see._ Kallen sighed before she turned around and faced her mother with a stern gaze. "Nothing is the matter," she scolded the woman. "I'm simply going to the kitchen to get a small snack before I get to my studies."

"Very well Miss," her mother responded politely as she bowed. "Please ring if you happen to need anything else at all."

"Yeah, yeah." Kallen turned around with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Kallen devoured the few snacks and downed the glass of warm milk in her room before she threw off her clothes and fell onto her bed and waited for the gracious embrace of sleep to take her.

It was not to be, however. Before sleep had come to completely claim her for the night, Kallen heard an annoying buzz in her ears.

Kallen sat up and rubbed her eyes, the annoying buzz continuing on undisturbed.

"What the hell is that infernal, annoying buzz?" Kallen wondered to herself as she stood up from her bed and began the search to find the source of whatever it was that happened to be annoying her and disrupting her chance to sleep.

She found the source of the buzz within one of her desk drawers, and she was then immediately awake and aware when she realized that the source was the drop phone that Zero contacted her on directly whenever he sought to reach her.

Kallen shook her head vigorously in order to help shake out whatever cobwebs might still be in her head and pressed the "Answer" key on the phone's display screen. She then pressed the cool surface of the phone to the side of her face.

"Did I wake you Q-1?" Zero's voice came to her from the phone once more.

"No sir," she denied. Kallen was in what Ohgi had dubbed her 'Soldier Mode' at the moment. She was now the warrior: Kallen Kozuki, not the timid schoolgirl known as Kallen Stadtfelt. "Although I was very close to falling asleep when you called."

Kallen heard Zero laugh over the phone. "Good," he said after he'd stopped laughing. "You're honest at least."

Kallen felt her face's temperature rise a few degrees, whether it was from embarrassment or anger at being caught in a vulnerable position by her leader she didn't quite know herself.

"Now then," Zero continued. "How soon can you be prepped and ready for Knightmare combat?"

Kallen's eyes widened in excitement, but she retained her 'Soldier Tone' as she answered the masked man on the phone. "At once sir."

"Good," Zero said to her. "I have confirmed intelligence that Viceroy Cornelia is gathering her forces for an all-out assault on the Saitama ghetto tomorrow afternoon and I am in need of a good pilot. Are you in?"

"Of course!" Kallen chirped. "Should I contact Ohgi and the others and let them know of this new development?"

"P-1 and the others won't be necessary," Zero informed her. "I have other plans for them. No. You will suffice for the operation tomorrow."

Kallen was curious as to why Zero didn't want Ohgi or anyone else from her brother's old resistance group that he'd taken command of to join up in the battle against Cornelia, but she quickly squashed her curiosity. _Surely Zero knows what he's doing, _she told herself to placate her curious side. "Very well then. What will be my responsibilities in the operation tomorrow?"

The next hour was spent with Zero explaining what her role in the counter-strike against Cornelia's forces tomorrow would be, and Kallen was giddy with excitement.

* * *

"Was all of that really necessary?" C.C. asked Lelouch as he ended his conversation with Kallen.

"Which part?" he asked his lover as Lelouch climbed back into bed with her.

"All of it."

Lelouch smirked as he linked his hands behind her waist and pulled her closer to him underneath the covers. "It's all a part of the plan," he told her before he connected their lips once more.

* * *

"God does it feel great to be out again," Kallen said as she stretched her arm in the warm sunlight. She had been searching the Saitama ghetto for over two hours now, just like Zero had instructed her to do last night.

She was back in what she considered to be her most comfortable outfit. Kallen had finally found an occasion to pull out her red-and-beige resistance outfit for the first time in over two weeks. She chose this one because Zero had told her that she would need to have good mobility in all of her extremities for what he had planned for today.

"Who are you?" a rough voice called to her in English from behind her.

She raised her hands as a sign that she had no hostile intentions to the presence behind her and replied to him, in perfect Japanese, "I am a fellow fighter against Britannia."

"Very well," the man behind her replied back in Japanese. "Who are you?"

_This is going just like he said it would,_ Kallen thought back to her conversation with Zero last night. "I come as a messenger and an ally," she revealed in Japanese. "My group's leader has uncovered information that they wish for me to tell your leader."

"What group do you belong to?" the Yamato Alliance member demanded immediately.

"I belong to the Kozuki group," she told him. _No use in telling him that Zero is the new leader yet,_ Kallen silently smirked to herself.

"Don't move from right there," the man instructed roughly.

Kallen then felt the man's presence disappear from behind her for a moment. _Must be contacting his superiors for confirmation,_ Kallen figured.

After a few minutes of patiently waiting, Kallen felt the presence of the Yamato Alliance member from earlier show back up. "Follow me," he told her.

Kallen turned around and her eyes were finally able to actually put a face to the guy's voice. He was a young man with short brown hair, was wearing a yellow long-sleeve shirt and a pair of blue denim jeans, and his face had a few red dots on it that signified the presence of acne. He couldn't have been any older than fifteen yet. _Just another victim to the injustice of Britannia,_ she realized as she took in the sight of the teenager leading her along.

The red-haired half-breed followed the brown-haired teenager for around ten minutes before she was ushered into a crumbling former apartment complex building. She continued to follow the Yamato member down a flight of stairs and entered a room where around twenty-or-so people were gathered together, with only a few candles placed sparingly around the room providing any and all illumination for the room.

Even though the few candles placed throughout the room provided very little light, Kallen was still able to make out the faces of every single person in the room. The vast majority of the Yamato Alliance members present were no older than herself. They were little more than teenagers. The leader, whom Kallen was only able to recognize from the very few times that her older brother and he had met during Naoto's reign as head of the resistance cell, was no older than twenty-seven. The leader had long, dark hair, a clean-shaven face, brown eyes, wore a similar outfit to Kallen's earlier chauffer, and wore a pair of thin-rimmed glasses.

"So you're from Ohgi's group huh?" the leader began as he took in Kallen's image. "What has that schoolteacher found out that concerns all of us?"

"Before I explain that," Kallen answered him. "I assume that all of you present have heard about the Shinjuku incident."

"We have," the leader affirmed with a nod.

"That was the doing of our new leader," she revealed to them all.

Her statement was met with varying degrees of awe and wonder. Kallen heard a few of them murmuring in awed tones about Zero's debut and the whole 'Orange' incident almost two weeks ago.

_Zero was spot on with their reactions, _Kallen noted to herself as her gaze went around the room. _Not a single person isn't revering the name of Zero already and he's just started._

The leader calmed everyone present down after a few moments with him clearing his throat twice. "So are we to assume that Zero is, in fact, the new commander of Naoto Kozuki's old resistance cell?" the Yamato Alliance leader asked her.

"He is," Kallen nodded back. "Zero sent me here as his personal representative to both warn and aid you, but we will only assist you if the entire Yamato Alliance agrees to follow our orders to the letter, regardless of circumstances or situations that may or may not arise in the coming battle," she presented calmly, just like Zero told her to.

"What battle?" the leader inquired of her.

"Sir!" The nameless young man who led Kallen to the center of the Yamato Alliance earlier barged into the gathering room, out of breath. "Viceroy Cornelia's forces have set up a perimeter that completely surrounds the entire Saitama area," he reported. "We're trapped!"

"What the hell!" the leader exclaimed. "How did they do that without alerting any of our sentries?"

_Your sentries are probably dead,_ Kallen thought morbidly. _This is Princess Cornelia that we're dealing with. She's absolutely, completely merciless._

Inwardly, Kallen was seething with anger at having already been pinned into an encircling net, but she used every ounce of her restraint and willpower to maintain an outward appearance of peace and serenity. Zero told her that she needed to retain the appearance of remaining calm in the face of overwhelming odds like this so that the Yamato Alliance would agree to his conditions sooner. And regardless of what Kallen thought about it, she knew full well that the only way for everyone to make it out alive now that they are caught in Cornelia's trap was for them all to agree to follow Zero's orders. After-all, it's how they did it in Shinjuku.

After a few minutes of chaos amongst the Yamato Alliance members, the leader was able to stop the screaming and the panicking outburst of the other people present and he then turned to Kallen. "Was this the battle that Zero told you about that you would be helping us in?"

Kallen nodded at the older Japanese man. "It is. There isn't any need to panic at the current moment, however."

"What the hell do you mean by that!" the leader screamed at the top of his lungs. "We are completely surrounded by Princess Cornelia, the Britannian Goddess of Victory's, personal forces with no way out! This is the perfect time to panic!"

"Which is precisely why we shouldn't," Kallen gently chided the Yamato leader. "That is precisely what Cornelia wants you to do. Zero has assured me that the assault on Saitama won't begin for at least one full hour. Therefore, we should use that time she has given us to prepare."

The Yamato Alliance's leader took in a deep, steadying breath and let it out slowly to help calm his nerves as Kallen just informed him of her intention. "She's right," he finally acknowledged. "We have a fight on our hands no matter what we may do now. The Yamato Alliance hereby agrees to the conditions set forth to us by Zero. We will work with you and will follow all of Zero's orders to the letter, regardless of the situation or the circumstances that will come up in the battle."

"Sir," one of the other members piped up. "Are you sure about this?"

"What other choices do we have!" the leader fired back at his subordinates. "Not only has Zero and this young woman before us fought the Britannians in open, pitched combat before, they've actually beaten them! We are surrounded by one of the true elite forces that Britannia has to offer outside of the Knights of the Round themselves! The only chance we have in order to survive this ordeal is to agree to Zero's offer!"

Their leader's rant seemed to have settled any potential further debate against his decision, because the entire room went silent as he finished.

"On behalf of Zero-sama," Kallen said to the leader, "I thank you." She then reached into her pocket and pulled out Zero's drop phone. She pressed a button on the phone's display and spoke into the device, "Did you hear all of that?"

"Yes I did," Zero's voice echoed in the now-silent room. "You did well Q-1."

"I appreciate it Zero," Kallen thanked her masked leader.

"Now then," Zero began. "Which one of you is the leader of the Yamato Alliance?"

_I hate it when he's right,_ Kallen thought to herself as Zero began to list out his instructions for the Yamato Alliance members.

* * *

Lelouch ended his conversation with the members of the Yamato Alliance and observed the bulk of the horde of forces that was Cornelia's attack force from the window of a still-intact hospital building's uppermost floor.

"It's the same size as it was last time," he noticed as his gaze came to rest on the G-1 Command Center where Cornelia no doubt resided in.

"Well what did you expect?" C.C. asked from the shadows while she finished changing into Zero's costume. "Not enough has really changed yet to warrant any variation in this battle just yet," she pointed out to her lover.

"Hm," Lelouch chuckled to himself as he slid his Britannian Infantry helmet off of his head and allowed his long, dark locks to hang free once more. "I guess that you're right about that," he conceded. "I must be growing wary and even more paranoid because of all of the constant warring and battles."

C.C. stepped out from the shadows behind him, with Zero's mask firmly tucked under her arm, and walked over to the Black King's side. "Aren't we doing all of this again to prevent any more wars Lelouch? As you said, 'When somebody wins, the fighting will end.'"

Lelouch turned his head towards her and smiled a warm smile. "We are," he confirmed to her. "Except that this time I know just what it will really take to accomplish that feat."

His lover flashed him a serene smile before she too looked over the force that his half-sister amassed to obliterate the Saitama ghetto and draw Zero out to face her. "What do you think she'll do when she finds out who you really are?" C.C. asked him.

"Which one?" Lelouch asked back.

C.C. shook her head. "Nevermind. I guess that you'll find out when it happens. But for now," C.C. paused as she held out Zero's mask in her hands and stared into the reflective glass surface, "Zero has to make his first miracle."

"That he does," Lelouch nodded. "But no one will ever know about it."

"Nope," C.C. stated to him flatly. "Nobody aside from us will ever really know the entire story, huh?"

Lelouch was silent as he continued to stare down from the ten-story-high window of the hospital ruin at Cornelia's forces.

The silence between the two lovers was unbroken for twenty minutes as they both simply looked at the first real battle they would be faced with this time around.

"I don't know how Cornelia will react to what will happen," Lelouch finally revealed to the green-haired woman to his right. "So make sure that you're paying attention. I'll need you to act immediately when I give you the signal."

"I know," C.C. sighed in response. "And I will. So you don't need to worry about that." She then noticed the worried glint in his eyes that only she and one other was ever able to see. "You're worried about Kallen, aren't you Lelouch?"

"I am," he hesitantly admitted to both her and himself. "She wasn't in the battle last time, so I don't know how her presence will affect and alter what is to come."

"That's not what I meant and you know it," she shrewdly pointed out to the prince.

Lelouch sighed in defeat at that. "I already lost her once. I really don't want to lose her again." He then felt a single, warm tear fall down his left cheek and drip off of his chin onto the concrete floor beneath him as he remembered the look in Kallen's eyes as Suzaku pierced his stomach in his previous life.

C.C.'s slender arms wrapped around Lelouch and she pulled him closer to her. "I know Lelouch," she whispered to him. "Kallen was – no is – very dear to me as well," she revealed to him. "She was one of the very few people that I've ever met in all of my years of existing that I was ever able to truly call 'friend.' You have to have faith in her Will to survive."

"I know," he told her as his body slightly shook. "And I do. It's just that-"

"You're worried because you don't know," C.C. finished for him. "I am as well. But you can't afford to let your personal feelings for her get in the way today. Today, you have to be Zero. It's the best way for you to make sure that Kallen survives this battle."

Lelouch's heart finally came to rest as he realized both the wisdom and the truth behind the immortal woman's words. "Thank you C.C.," he breathed as he gently returned her embrace with one of his own. "You really are a godsend, you know that?"

C.C. lightly chuckled as she nuzzled into Lelouch's neck. "If you really want to get technical," she said playfully, "we're both actually godsends."

Lelouch rolled his eyes at that. "You just _had_ to go and ruin the moment, didn't you?"

C.C. giggled to herself as the two of them ended their embrace and separated from each other's body warmth. "I had to say something to get you out of your funk. We can't have the regicide-extraordinaire having a bleeding heart as a battle is about to rage now can we?"

Lelouch smiled at his lover. "No we can't," he answered her. He then reached down and grabbed Zero's mask from where C.C. had dropped it as the pair of lovers embraced.

"You know, Kallen and I once talked about what it really means to wear that mask," C.C. told him as he stared into the dark glass.

"You did?" Lelouch had never heard about that before.

C.C. nodded to him. "It was just after Nunnally became Viceroy of Area Eleven and you entered into your pitiful depression because you failed to capture your sister over the Pacific and she chose Suzaku over Zero."

Lelouch winced as the memory struck home. "It was my worst moment," he responded slowly. "Both as Lelouch, and as Zero."

C.C. nodded at him once more. "Yes it was. I walked into your room on the Ikaruga and Kallen was just staring at the mask. I could tell that she was also pretty depressed about the whole affair. I don't think even she understood all of the burdens you bore at the time."

"So what did you tell her?"

"The truth," C.C. stated to him. "The burden of the one that wears Zero's mask is simply the fate of the entire world, nothing less. That identity, Zero, can't be taken up by just anyone. The only one who is strong enough to take up Zero's mantle and bear all of its burdens, is you Lelouch."

"Do you really think so?" he asked his emerald haired lover.

"I know so Lelouch," she reiterated. "But Kallen is the one who convinced me that you were the one person, in all the world, that is strong enough to be Zero."

Lelouch's violet eyes both widened. "You mean that…"

C.C. nodded again. "Yes Lelouch. Kallen had absolute faith that you were and still are strong enough to be the one who decides the fate of the world. Now it's your turn to have faith that she is strong enough to survive the coming battles."

Lelouch felt a fire ignite and turn into a raging inferno within his heart as C.C.'s words registered in his mind. He then handed the, now-light-as-a-feather, burden of Zero's mask to her and said, "Thank you C.C.. I must reward Kallen's faith in me with my faith in her."

An explosion in the ghetto's distance shook the hospital ruins the two lovers were hiding in at that moment, which signaled the start of the Saitama genocide.

"Zero is here," Lelouch said to Cornelia's Britannian forces as he watched them begin their assault into the ghetto, "and he won't be retreating on this day."

As she entered into the shadows and began her descent from the hospital ruins onto the streets below, C.C. cracked a smile.

* * *

**A/N:** (Fireworks fired off as dripley11 walks out on-stage while twenty scantily-clad Code Geass women in bunny costumes dance their asses of to AC/DC's song "Back in Black")

Have no fear my lovely readers! dripley11 has returned!

All flare aside, yes I am still alive, no I didn't forget about you all, and my Saitama battle has now begun! I was right in my guess last time that Saitama and Kawaguchi will both take up at least two chapters each.

I'm not going to bother giving all of you loyal readers with some lame excuse about how my Great-Grandmother died over spring break and that the trauma from losing her forced me into a deep depression that medication and weeks of therapy with the next Sigmund Freud were the only way that I was able to break free from my dark world. Okay, I am using a little hyperbole on that one, but my Great-Gran did die over spring break. However, we all knew it was coming for a long time, so I had been preparing myself for that day for well over a year. Her death did sting a bit, but it didn't hurt as much as it would've been if she died suddenly. I will miss her greatly. I did get to read at her gravesite though.

The honest answer that all of you are seeking from me was that I was just feeling tired and lazy. I mean, for Christ's sake, I put out six chapters and a Prologue that all tallied to over 56000 words in just over a month and a half! I wanted to just kick back, relax, and read some more Naruto fanfics because I was on a Naruto kick for the last month.

Don't worry though, I got a daily reminder from my beta (who oh-so-conviently just so happens to live in the room next to mine in our apartment) that I wasn't writing. You all can thank him for me returning as soon as I did. He knows just how to motivate me. You see the dining halls at our college make these wondrously orgasmic double-fudge chocolate chip cookies and I'm not on the meal plan this year. My roommate/beta, however, is on the meal plan. He used my crack-like addiction to those phenomenal, ambrosia-like circles of pure goodness to motivate me to get back to writing. He always brought me more cookies every time I wrote more, and the more I wrote, the more cookies I get. It's a wonderful system that just might lead to me developing type-2 diabetes, losing my left foot, and a wonderful case of Carpel Tunnel, but those cookies make it all worth it.

Now back to the serious, non-cookie, matters. Yes, I just did that. I am including Kallen in the Saitama battle. Don't like it, tough. This is my story and I will write it how I see fit. I'm not here to please all of you. Okay, well maybe I am, but that's not the point goddammit! I'm here to write a compelling story with a great plot and unforeseeable plot twists that make you wonder, "What the fuck just happened?" or "Did he really just do that?" A few people were complaining about how Lelouch wasn't changing enough for his betterment. Well how do you like this! Huh! This good 'nough for you! You'll find out in the next chapter just how much Kallen's presence will change the Saitama battle though. (Dragonball Z announcer guy's voice) Q-1 is in the battle! Just how much will Kallen affect the coming fight? Find out next time on Once More, with Feeling.

On a happier note: 300 Favorites! Right now there are chibi-sized versions of dripley11 dancing their happy dance in my head until their little, chibi size 9 feet fall off. Yes I am well-aware of just how small my feet really are, no need to rub it in my face that all of you other guys out there wear mini-sized boats on your feet to cover up your lacking in... Nevermind that. Back to my point. Was I trying to say something?

**Lelouch: **300 Favorites.

Ah! That's right! Thanks to all of you who've favorited my story here. I love all of you, in a purely platonic way of course. Like a brother-sister kind of love. Not like how Lelouch loves Nunnally of course, but you get my point. Am I ranting again? My family always told me it was my worst quality. Then again, I think I learned how to rant from my father. He's a really great guy you know. He's the one who...

**Entire Code Geass Cast:** FOR GOD'S SAKE! GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!

**Lloyd:** I think I like this writer. He reminds me of myself.

**Cecile:** Quiet down Lloyd! We don't want another thousand words written for no purpose at all.

Okay. I guess I'll end it there before Lloyd tries to pry his way out of my computer. I may be mad, but I can't hold a candle to that man.

**Lloyd:** HEY!

Later peeps. I'll see ya next week.

(Add on) Cecile was damn near hit the nail on the head! This one Author's Note is damn near one thousand words!


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

* * *

"Q-1," Zero's voice exuded out from her personal communication radio. "Did the packages arrive at point D-5 on time?"

"They're here," Kallen confirmed to her leader as she took in the sight of the thirty captured Britannian Sutherland Knightmare frames. They were painted the standard color scheme, so there really wasn't anything special about them though. "Is there any one in particular that you want me to pilot myself before I go to point H-8?"

"Negative," Zero informed the red-haired pilot. "I want you, N-3, and B-5 to all travel over to point H-8 as a group together in Theta formation with you at the head of the spear."

"Roger that," Kallen acknowledged into her communicator as she slid into the cockpit block of one of the Knightmares and re-familiarized herself with the layout of a Sutherland's pilot seat and controls. "N-3, B-5, did you confirm?" she directed her question to those designated to follow her.

"We did," came both replies.

"However," Kallen recognized the voice of her escort from over an hour ago as B-5. "What is Theta formation? If we're going to use it, shouldn't we know what it is?"

"It's a simple formation designed for the sole purpose of maximizing speed and covering distance in the fastest way possible," she informed both of her new squad-mates over the radio. "We all simply accelerate our Knightmares to maximum speed and proceed in a straight line to our point one-behind-the-other, and Zero's last order was for me to be placed at the head of the formation and for the two of you to follow me."

"So what do we do?" N-3's distinctively masculine voice asked as Kallen's Sutherland began its lengthy start-up sequence.

"I want N-3 behind me and B-5 at the rear of the formation," Kallen ordered them.

"Why do I always get ordered to be the caboose?" B-5 groaned.

"Hah!" N-3 teased his fellow Yamato Alliance fighter. "I knew you'd be the worst role Toshida!"

"Shut it Souna!" B-5 fired back, obviously flustered by his ally's teasing.

"Clam it both of you!" Kallen roared from her cockpit.

"Yes ma'am," the pair of males acknowledged immediately.

"I put B-5 at the rear of the formation," Kallen decided to explain her reasoning, "because he's been a Yamato sentry and scout for about two years, so his role is to simply watch ahead of us and to our sides. His attention to detail might, and quite possibly could, catch something that I miss while we're moving at such high speeds. I am at the head of the formation so that I can quickly and efficiently cut down anyone that gets in our pathway before we can get surrounded by Britannian forces. N-3's role is to provide support to me from a distance while I am engaged in battle. Is that clear?!"

"Yes ma'am," both of her followers chirped back simultaneously as she finished explaining both of their individual roles in the coming operation.

Kallen looked at the layout of the Saitama area that had been pre-uploaded into her Sutherland's inner computer system so that she could find the quickest path to point H-8 from her current position. _They must have really been preparing for this battle,_ Kallen thought morbidly about her enemies. _Because this map is very well-detailed. It even shows some of the underground passageways._ She then noticed a small, narrow alleyway that was just wide enough for a Knightmare to travel through safely that would take both her and her group right next to point H-8.

"N-3," Kallen called, "report the status of your Sutherland."

"Uh," N-3's voice drawled over the radio. "Let's see here. I've got ninety-percent on my energy filler, all systems read that they're green, six hundred rounds for my rifle, and one Chaos mine."

"Good," Kallen accepted his report. _That Chaos mine will help if we ever get surrounded._ "Now your turn B-5."

"Same on all accounts as N-3," B-5 answered her.

"Very well then." The crimson-haired warrior then wrapped her hands over the controls for her Sutherland. "Let's move!" she ordered. "Assume formation Theta as I described and follow me!"

Her Knightmare's landspinners both squealed against the pavement underneath as Kallen took off in the direction of the alleyway.

"Q-1, what is your position?" Zero spoke to her over the radio.

"Myself, N-3, and B-5 are en route to point H-8," Kallen reported smoothly.

"How are you getting there?" Zero asked her.

_We're moving our Knightmares,_ she thought sarcastically. "We are currently moving through an alleyway that will place us directly next to point H-8 when we exit."

"Good," Zero sounded pleased through the radio. "There is a small patrol of two Sutherland-class Knightmares that will pass the exit of your alley in approximately fifty-one seconds. Show no mercy," he ended seriously.

Kallen grew a devilish smile on her face at that information. "Roger that," she acknowledged Zero's information and orders over her radio. "B-5, N-3. Did you roger?"

"Did we what?" N-3 asked over the radio incredulously.

"Did we 'roger?'" B-5 berated his teammate's lack of knowledge. "That's military-speak for, 'Did you hear what Zero just said over the radio?'"

"Oh," N-3 said, finally understanding what Kallen meant. "In that case, yes. Yes we 'rogered.'"

Kallen resisted the urge to slap her face at her subordinate's attitude. _Was I ever that bad,_ Kallen wondered as she sped her Sutherland down the length of the alleyway.

The pair of enemy Sutherlands that Zero informed her and her followers about arrived just as Kallen's Sutherland raced out of the alleyway at top speed and turned to face them.

Both enemies stopped approximately one-hundred meters from Kallen's Knightmare and leveled their rifles at her. "State your name and squad!" the one the left demanded over his outer speakers. "And why the hell is your I.F.F. signal not showing up on my screens and sensors?"

"Not on mine either," the other Britannian pilot confirmed.

Both enemy units then raised their rifles at Kallen.

"Are you one of the terrorists?" the left one asked cautiously.

"Are you in position N-3?" Kallen whispered into her radio.

"I am," N-3 confirmed. "B-5 is watching and will alert us if Britannian reinforcements start coming to join up over here."

"Good," Kallen acknowledged his information. "Take out the one on the right. I want the mouthy one."

"Whose right?" N-3 asked her. "Yours or mine?"

"Just pick one and shoot them!" Kallen yelled into the radio in frustration.

"Alright, alright. Sheesh."

Kallen then watched with pride in her chest as the blue Sutherland on her right suddenly ignited in flames under a shower of armor-piercing assault rifle rounds. The auto-eject feature saved the Britannian pilot's life.

"Jason!" the other Sutherland screamed over the speakers as he turned and watched his partner's cockpit zoom off.

_Wrong move,_ Kallen smirked to herself. She then raised and leveled her rifle at the enemy unit and fired her assault rounds at the lone-remaining Britannian Knightmare.

Her aim was just slightly off, however, because her rifle's rounds, instead of impacting with the Britannian Sutherland, destroyed the enemy's standard assault rifle that he had been carrying.

"Damn it," she cursed to herself at missing such a golden opportunity to take out such easy prey. "I can't believe I missed him."

"You'll pay for that," her enemy growled at her. "No way in all the seven hells will a stinking Eleven monkey like you ever beat someone like me!" he declared loudly.

"You're welcome to try and prove just how truthful that is," Kallen taunted her opponent over her Sutherland's outer speakers.

Laughter echoed from her enemy after he'd finally heard Kallen's voice. "No wonder you missed me!" the Britannian pig howled. "You're not just an Eleven, but you're a bitch as well!"

Kallen nearly unleashed another volley of assault rifle rounds on her enemy once more, but she realized that he was trying to provoke her and get under her skin to throw her off. Instead, she decided to simply start laughing at him.

"What's so damned funny?" her foe demanded.

"You must think that you're all that don't you?" she taunted from across the way. "But I've met infants without teeth that have more bite than you. I'd bet you're just a fat, old-ass pig that can't get any without having to pay for it first."

"You'd be smart to shut your yap little girl," the opposing pilot growled at her.

"Struck a chord have I?" she continued on. "You know I haven't even started yet? I can keep this up all day fat-ass."

"You're dead!" her enemy screeched at her as his landspinners accelerated and shot him towards her Knightmare as his stun tonfas extended.

"Too slow," Kallen smirked at her easy-to-goad, foolish enemy as she extended only her left arm's stun tonfa.

As her opponent continued to close the distance between the two of them, time seemed to slow down in front of Kallen. She couldn't see anything other than the charging Knightmare, and it moved as if it was in slow motion. She didn't hear any of the explosions that were happening elsewhere in the battle raging on. Kallen only saw and heard her charging opponent.

_This is what I was made to do,_ Kallen thought as she readied her counter-move. _I was born to be a warrior._

Just as she witnessed the Britannian Sutherland raise its right arm to bring down the extended tonfa atop her Knightmare's head, Kallen heard the Britannian pilot yell, "It's over you monkey!"

Kallen then spun her Sutherland to her left as soon as the enemy began to crash its arm down so fast that she ended up directly behind her foe, left arm readied to pierce her enemy.

"I couldn't agree more!" Kallen roared as her extended tonfa pierced the enemy Sutherland's cockpit from behind, granting her foolish foe the mercy of an instant death.

"Wow," she heard N-3 breathe out over the radio. "You're the real deal, aren't you Q-1?"

"I like to think so," she answered him as Kallen retracted her Sutherland's left tonfa, which was now coated in a crimson fluid that wasn't there before her impromptu duel. "Let's go B-5," she called.

"On my way!" B-5 chirped back.

"How close are we to point H-8," N-3 asked her over the radio.

"About two minutes worth of travel," she told him.

"Q-1, status report," Zero's voice ordered through the radio.

"Enemy patrol dealt with," she answered her masked leader. "No casualties or damage received to anyone in my group," she reported dutifully.

"Location?"

"Two minutes out," Kallen reported.

"Good," Zero said back to her. "Once you make it to point H-8 you are to hold position until I give you further orders. Understood?"

"Loud and clear sir."

After Zero cut off his transmission N-3 piped up. "What's so important about H-8? Do you know Q-1?"

Kallen shook her head and then berated herself for her action because she knew that nobody could see her while she was inside the cockpit. "Not a clue," she responded. "I would think that you guys would know, seeing as how this is your turf and all."

"This area has been abandoned for months," B-5 revealed to her as he returned to the group. "We know that the old sewage lines run underneath the area, but that's all we really know about it."

_I wonder what Zero could want with old sewage pipes,_ Kallen thought to herself. "Alright let's move. We're almost there and Zero gave us a job to do."

"Yeah!" B-5 yelled over the radio, a little too excited. "Let's do it!"

"You know," N-3 teased his fellow Yamato member, "you're still just a kid Toshida."

Kallen couldn't help but smile as they resumed their direct line over to point H-8.

As they arrived at the designated area a few minutes later, Kallen only had one thought in her head. "What are all of these for?"

* * *

Lelouch leaned back into his stolen Sutherland's cockpit chair and his eyes gazed over the layout of the Saitama ghetto. All of the Britannian forces and their formations were laid out before him.

"I count eighty-one Sutherland-class forces," Lelouch said to himself. "Can't forget about Cornelia's Royal Guard either, so that means around ten well-equipped Gloucesters as well. Then we have the three personal Gloucesters that Cornelia, Guilford, and Darlton all use."

"This is R-4," his radio chirped at him. "Enemy armor surrounding point E-5 destroyed."

_And the tanks and infantry make this a difficult task indeed,_ Lelouch thought to himself, _but not an impossible one._ "Casualties?" he asked his subordinate for the time being.

"Two men are critically injured and R-5's tank is scrap," R-4 answered him.

Lelouch grimaced at the loss of a valuable piece of armor like a tank. Tanks may be slow and bulky when they are compared to even the basest of Knightmares, but the tank's one-hundred fifty millimeter mounted cannon was strong enough to tear asunder any enemy armor. It can pierce the ten-foot-thick titanium-laced armor surrounding a G-1 if you load the right shot.

"I want you and N-2 to fall back to point E-7," Lelouch ordered the tank pilot.

"Understood," R-4 acknowledged his new orders before leaving Lelouch to his plotting and scheming.

"Cornelia must be enjoying herself," Lelouch said his thoughts out loud as he mused. "Wasting her men just to try and draw me out so I can try to kill her. Honestly, I can't believe I lost to her last time."

"N-1 reporting," the Dark King's radio went off with the Yamato Alliance's leader's voice.

"This is Zero," he answered.

"Objective has been obtained and left for Q-1."

"Excellent," Lelouch responded. _I hope you enjoy the surprise Kallen._

"Orders sir?" N-1 asked through the communicator.

"R-3. What's your status?" Lelouch ordered.

"Ten minutes until explosives are set and ready," R-3 reported.

"N-1. I want you and P-3 to both circle around point D-6 and hit the four enemy armors patrolling there from behind," Lelouch told his radio. "The enemy tanks should be visible once you pass the old Tax Bureau ruins."

"Roger," N-1 said back to him.

"Objective Sigma accomplished," P-1's distinctively feminine voice sent Lelouch through the radio.

"Good," Lelouch said to the woman. _It's almost time for the show,_ he thought to himself. "P-1. I want you and P-7 to both fall back to point A-8 and replace both R-1 and B-2 in protecting the injured."

"Of course," P-1 responded to her new assignment.

"R-1," Lelouch called through his radio to the man.

"Here," R-1 said back to him.

"When P-1 and P-7 arrive I want you and B-2 to both go to point G-7."

"Understood," R-1 confirmed his new orders.

Lelouch fell back into his chair and let out a lengthy sigh as he finished giving out his new set of orders. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out his black chess King. He began to twirl it between his fingers as he observed the opposing Britannian forces get chipped away. Little by little.

"Bring it on Cornelia," he said aloud while he continued to twirl his King. "I refuse to lose to you again."

"R-3 reporting in," Lelouch's radio buzzed to life once more.

"Are you finished?" Lelouch asked the demolitions expert, almost overly eager to begin the second Act that he had planned out.

"And away," R-3 reported to him. "The Brits never even saw us and are just sitting on the bridge, like they're just waiting for something."

"Very well then," Lelouch said into his radio slowly. "Detonate the bridge and cut off their escape route now!"

"Understood," his radio answered him with R-3's voice.

Lelouch watched in awe as the suspension bridge loaded with Britannian armor and Knightmares detonated and began to fall into the river below. His devil's smirk adorned his face as he witnessed the enemy troops start to sink to the bottom of the ocean-blue waterway.

He then turned inside his cockpit and listened to his Sutherland's installed Britannian radio as one of his sister's personal Knights, General Andreas Darlton, spoke to all Britannian forces. "All forces retreat behind ghetto perimeter at once. Formation doesn't matter. All forces are hereby ordered to fall back!"

Lelouch was grinning a wicked smile as he turned off his Britannian I.F.F. signal in response to the not-unexpected development so that Cornelia wouldn't be able to track him. "That won't work this time dear sister," Lelouch grinned. "This time you'll have to actually find me. And you were never any good at hide-and-seek. That was always dear little Euphy's expertise. You would always storm out and refuse to keep playing any time that you couldn't find us."

Lelouch then felt his pocket vibrate and he brought out his personal cell phone. "Student Council Room" was listed as the Caller ID.

_I always wondered what this was about,_ Lelouch thought as he pressed the "Answer" button on the phone's display and put the phone to his ear. "This is Lelouch," he said into the phone.

"Hey Lelouch," Suzaku's voice met his ear. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the middle of a life-or-death battle against the Emperor's forces," he answered his friend sarcastically. _'The best lies…' as they say,_ he thought as he suppressed a snicker.

"Uh-huh," Suzaku shot back, "and I'm actually Zero."

_You have no idea just how ironic what you just said really is Suzaku,_ Lelouch thought in his head. "So why'd you call?" he asked the Japanese youth.

"Well," Suzaku began," a little birdy told me that you and Kallen have a little fling going on."

"Who the hell told you that!" he yelled into the phone.

"Uh-uh," Suzaku teased his friend. "So is it true or not?"

Lelouch felt a chilling tingle travel down the length of his spine. _Did Milly say something to him?_ his mind raced. _No. Milly wouldn't ruin her favor with me,_ he reasoned with himself. "No," he finally declared emphatically. "Kallen and I aren't together, and we don't have a 'fling.' Did Rivalz continue to spread his absurd rumor even after she and I both set him straight?"

"Nah, it wasn't Rivalz," Suzaku dismissed over the phone. "So is there anyone that _has_ caught your fancy."

Realization dawned on Lelouch as he understood just what Suzaku was asking him. "You're doing this for Shirley, aren't you Suzaku?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lelouch didn't believe Suzaku's casual denial. "I am not jealous of anyone."

"She's in the room isn't she?"

"Why do you ask?" Suzaku kept up his act.

"Fine," Lelouch sighed. "I won't get rid of you until you get a satisfactory answer, will I?"

"Nope."

"You can tell Shirley that there is nothing going on between Kallen and I," Lelouch told his green-eyed friend. "You can also tell her that I think that she's very beautiful."

"Will do," Suzaku said through the phone. "Now why did I have to call you to get ahold you?"

"You are aware of just how expensive it is to care for Nunnally?" Lelouch asked his longtime friend.

"I am," Suzaku confirmed.

"Do you know how I get the money to do that?"

"Not really," his friend admitted to Lelouch.

"My gambling is what pays the bills," Lelouch informed Suzaku.

"I see," Suzaku realized. "Well, I'll let you get back to whatever it is that you've been doing then."

"I appreciate it," Lelouch told his best friend.

"No problem. Later." Suzaku then ended the call between them.

"Now then," Lelouch said aloud, returning to the appropriate mindset for the situation on-hand. "It's time to begin the second Act of this performance."

He then sent an open, audio-only conference link to Cornelia's G-1 Command Center. The confirmation link appeared on his screen a few seconds later.

"Hello Princess," Lelouch spoke into the conference channel between his Sutherland and Princess Cornelia's Command Center.

"Zero," Cornelia spat out his name distastefully. "So you really were here all along weren't you," she stated.

"But of course I was," he affirmed her suspicions. "I _am_ the only one capable of besting Britannia in warfare after-all."

"My how modest you are," Cornelia's regal voice came to him layered in pure sarcasm. "You really think that a few measly Elevens and a rag-tag group of wannabe Knightmare pilots could really best me?"

"Not at all," he answered her.

"Then why don't you face me yourself you cowardly snake?" Cornelia demanded through the radio waves.

"Now, now," Lelouch politely scolded his older half-sibling. "There's no need for this name-calling. Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?"

"You're obviously lacking in common sense," his violet-haired sister told him dryly. "You sit there trying to goad me, even when you just admitted it yourself that you don't have a chance at beating me today."

"That I did," Lelouch reaffirmed. "If our forces were to reengage in combat, you would eventually overwhelm my forces here with the sheer mass of manpower you've accumulated and claim victory by a cleaned board. However, I would be long gone and away from here by the time you achieved your victory. So your 'victory' would be meaningless and all that would happen is more Japanese would end up flocking to my side because of this senseless genocide of yours."

"So what?" Cornelia shot back at him, arrogance plain and obvious in her words. "It's only a few measly Eleven terrorist who like to think that they're really worth as much as one of my soldiers. What could they do before the might of the Holy Britannian Empire?"

"Such arrogance becomes you," Lelouch calmly informed his sister. "I believe those were the same words that the Roman nobles all told themselves about Spartacus. All the way up until he separated their heads from their necks."

"But that revolutionist was beaten and killed in the end," Cornelia pointed out to him shrewdly, proving her education and knowledge. "If you compare yourself to that peon then you will end up meeting the same fate that he did. Death. But I highly doubt that yours would be as merciful as a simple crucifixion."

"You are probably right about that," Lelouch shrugged. "But that is only _if _I happen to get caught. However, I possess something that Spartacus could have never even _dreamed_ of possessing during his rebellion."

"Oh?" Cornelia said curiously. "And just what might that be? Loyalty amongst those who follow you? The Romans crucified over five-hundred slaves that all claimed that they were Spartacus. They still found and killed him, even after all of that."

_No, but I got a _million_ people to masquerade as me,_ Lelouch thought to himself, amused at the comparison. "I don't have that yet," Lelouch admitted to his sibling. "But I do possess a warrior who can fight on par with your personal Knights your highness."

Cornelia burst out laughing at that statement. "My, that's quite the claim," she responded to his declaration after her laughter calmed down. "I would love to see an Eleven that is just as good as either Darlton or Guilford."

"Then shall we make a wager?" Lelouch asked her.

"Humor me," his sister ordered dryly.

"I propose a duel," Lelouch revealed. "A simple test to see who is a better Knightmare pilot. Let us see if it is one of your personal Knights, both of whom have been personally trained and drilled for over a decade. Or will the victor be my Champion, a simple Eleven who has never received any actual military or official combat training at all."

"Sounds interesting," Cornelia answered him as she heard his proposal. "What shall we make the stakes of this duel between our Champions?"

"Simple," Lelouch told her. "If my Champion wins, you and I meet. Face-to-face, with no weapons or escorts. All we will do is simply talk. I have no intention of killing you your highness."

"I wish I could say the feeling is mutual," Cornelia grumbled from her G-1. "And what will I get should my Knight win the duel?"

"I will tell you why it is that your half-brother Clovis was never able to find the bodies of either of the siblings which you lost to the Second Pacific War seven years ago," Lelouch presented her prize.

The other end of the Conference line was deathly silent as Lelouch finished presenting her award should whichever Knight she chose emerge victorious from the duel.

"What guarantee do I have that whatever information that you have is accurate?" Cornelia finally asked him.

"I swear upon my mother's tombstone that the information which I possess is completely, one-hundred percent accurate," he assured his sister.

"Very well then," Cornelia said to him. "I accept your duel's invitation. Where will the battle take place?"

"I am sending you the coordinates as we speak," he informed his elder sibling. "Also, neither of us are allowed to be within five-hundred meters of the duel grounds. This is to prevent either side from attempting to interfere and influence our Champion's duel one way or the other."

"I agree to that," Cornelia told him. "How long until the duel takes place?"

"Thirty minutes," he answered. "I wish you the best of luck in the duel your highness." He immediately cut off the conference link between them after that.

"Um, Zero," Kallen called to him over his radio.

"Yes Q-1?"

"Why hasn't anything happened," the red-head asked him. "We're all getting a little anxious as to why nothing has been going on. This silence is unsettling."

"Because I was just conversing with the princess," Lelouch informed his best pilot. "The two of us just came to an agreement a few moments ago."

"What was it about?"

Lelouch smirked. "You will have the privilege of dueling one of Cornelia's personal Knights in a one-on-one duel. Are you ready Q-1?"

"You're damn straight I'm ready!" Kallen roared in response.

_Cornelia will more-than-likely send Guilford,_ Lelouch figured. _Darlton is better as a commander, just like Tohdoh. They both are great warriors in their own right, but their real worth is in their ability to micromanage their troops in the middle of combat. I hope you're ready Kallen, because this will be your first real test. You haven't fought anyone who is as good as Guilford just yet._

"Thank you for this opportunity!" Kallen thanked him. "I promise that I won't let you down."

"I know that Q-1," Lelouch assured her. "You won't let me down, no matter what." _Whether you win, or lose._

* * *

Kallen was giddy, no, she was positively _ecstatic _at the moment. Zero had just given her a chance to prove just how good she really was. She was going to duel one of the best Knightmare pilots that Britannia had produced.

_I won't lose,_ she told herself. _Zero trusts in me enough to go against one of Cornelia's personal Knights. I must prove his faith in me isn't unjustified. I _can't_ lose!_

"You there Q-1?" B-5's voice called to her from her personal communicator.

"I'm here," Kallen answered her squad-mate. "It's just that I'm too excited right now. I'm shaking in anticipation."

"Well I think that you're crazy," N-3 piped up over the radio. "I'd turn and high-tail it away if I knew that I was going to fight one of the Goddess of Victory's personal Knights."

"Luckily," Kallen teased the downer, "I'm not you. I refuse to back down from a fight like this. How will I ever beat Britannia into submission if I can't best one Knight?"

"You've got some grand ambitions," N-3 responded to her. "Some would just call you crazy or insane for thinking that you could do that. Others would say that you're just a dreamer with your head in the clouds."

"I know just what I am," Kallen answered him slowly. "I am a resistance fighter of Area Eleven. I fight to free Japan and shatter the shackles of servitude that my people are forced to endure. I conquer so that my brother's dream won't simply remain just that. I will tear apart anyone that stands in the way of my goals. And I don't care if it's just a simple foot-soldier or that bastard Emperor himself!"

N-3 whistled over the radio as Kallen's brief speech came to an end. "Not bad," he said to her. "I almost think that you can actually win now."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," she shot back with a smirk on her face.

"Any time," N-3 said back playfully. "I live to please."

"You really should have some faith in her Souna," B-5's voice came through the radio channels. "If anyone here can do it, it's Q-1. I mean, if Zero thinks that she can do it, then there's no reason that she can't."

"Why are you always like this Toshida?" N-3 asked of his fellow Yamato fighter with a groan. "You've always been a dreamer. Even Kora told you so."

"I'm not a dreamer!" B-5 denied fiercely. "I'm just an optimist."

"B-5's right," Kallen told her followers. "Those who say something isn't possible shouldn't be interrupting the one's doing it."

"I'm not a pessimist," N-3 informed the other two. "I'm just a realist. I've seen hundreds of people die who thought that they could emerge victorious against something like Britannia with some pretty dream or ideal carrying them into battle. I'll believe something is possible when I see it with my own two eyes. Not a second sooner."

"Then watch," Kallen smirked at him, "but don't interfere. This is my battle, and I refuse to accept anything short of victory."

Alright," N-3 sighed tiredly. "I hope you win Q-1. I really do."

"Don't worry," Kallen assured him. "I have no intention of falling today."

"Ten minutes Q-1," Zero's voice called to her from her radio.

"I'm on my way," Kallen told her masked leader.

She then reached her Sutherland's hand down and her Knightmare grasped Zero's gift to her.

"Thanks for telling me what these really were," Kallen directed her appreciation to B-5.

"No problem," B-5 replied back to her

_*Flashback: One hour prior*_

"What are all of these for?" Kallen blurted out as she looked at her viewscreens.

"No way," B-5 gasped over the radio.

"You recognize these things?" Kallen asked B-5 over the radio.

"Those are the specially-made Knightmare lances that Princess Cornelia's personal Knights use," B-5 informed her.

Kallen's eyes both widened as she realized what that meant.

"How the hell did Zero get ahold of _those_?" N-3 said hysterically.

Kallen looked back at the golden lances before her in a newfound appreciation for her leader. _I don't know how he did it, _Kallen silently wondered. _ But I sure as hell intend to use these._

*_Flashback End*_

_So this is why he got me these,_ Kallen realized as her Sutherland held the lance out before her.

She marveled at the sight of the lance she held. It was just a bit shorter than her Knightmare was tall from the lance's tip all the way to the butt of the handle. It was painted a beautiful golden color and had four dagger-like extensions at the base of the lance that each extended up to around halfway up the length of the lance. The lance's tip was a refined, fine point that Kallen just knew would be able to pierce any Knightmare armor. It truly was a magnificent weapon for any Knightmare pilot to wield.

Kallen shook her head to get those marvellings out of her head. _I don't have time for that,_ she reminded and scolded herself. _I've got a duel to go win._ "Well, I'm off," she told her squadmates.

"Good luck," B-5 wished her.

"You'll need it," N-3 stated matter-of-factly to the red-haired revolutionist.

Kallen fought down the urge to retort to N-3's remark. She then turned her Sutherland away from her squad, advanced her landspinners to max-speed, and raced off towards the area that Zero told her would serve as her duel's grounds.

_I can do this,_ she encouraged herself to try and shake any nerves she still had. _I _will_ win._

She arrived at the sight of her duel with five minutes to spare before the designated start time and found that her opponent was already there, waiting for her.

Her opponent's Knightmare was a personally modified Gloucester. Its color scheme was a violet, royal purple frame, a black chest cavity that Kallen guessed was where the Knightmare's cockpit was located, and a silver finish along certain portions of the Gloucester. A black cape was strapped onto her opponent's shoulders that went down to the Knightmare's ankle joints and was wisping about the Gloucester in the wind. Her enemy was holding the same type of lance that Kallen was using at the Knightmare's side with its right arm extended and grasping onto the lace's handle.

"So you are to be my opponent," a young adult's male voice stated, coming from the opposing Knightmare frame.

"That I am," Kallen confirmed.

"A woman?" Her enemy sounded surprised, but unflustered that she was a girl.

"Got a problem with that?" Kallen asked the Britannian Knight. _I'm really getting tired of all this crap._

"Not at all," the Knight told her. "Her highness Princess Cornelia is a woman and is, by far, the greatest warrior to ever grace the battlefield. I was simply surprised at your presence is all. I meant no offense."

"Good to hear that," Kallen told him. "I really don't need another reason to fight you right now."

"Zero told my Princess that you are a warrior that is capable of fighting on par with myself," the man revealed. "Is Zero simply boasting, or does the man speak the truth about your skills?"

"I guess that we'll find out then," Kallen smirked at her foe.

"That we will," her Britannian opponent acknowledged. "Before we begin our duel, I would have your name."

"Isn't it proper manners for the gentleman to introduce himself before asking the lady's name?" Kallen teased.

"I apologize," the Knight said to her. "You are correct. My name is Sir Gilbert G. P. Guilford. Personal Knight of her highness, Second Princess Cornelia li Britannia."

"Kozuki," Kallen stated bluntly. "My name is Kallen Kozuki."

"Kozuki?" Guilford asked her. "Are you, by any chance, related to a man whose name was Naoto Kozuki?"

Kallen's teeth grit and ground together at the mention of her deceased elder brother's name. "He was my big brother," she informed Guilford.

"I see," the Knight responded slowly. "I recently read a file about recent Area Eleven terrorist activities in preparation for my stay here. I came across your brother's name and I read his file after his exploits caught my eye. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for your loss."

"I don't need your pity," Kallen spat back.

"I know," Cornelia's Knight told her. "Your brother was a respectable man. I read that his only targets were Britannian military installations. He never attempted to target civilians or any group that was incapable of defending themselves. From what I saw, it seems as though he went out of his way to avoid harming innocents. Naoto Kozuki was a man of great honor. He did not deserve what Clovis ordered done to him. He earned a merciful execution, not that act of barbarism."

"Are you ready to begin yet?" Kallen tried to worm her way into her enemy's mind, all-to-eager to change the subject away from her brother's death. "I'm getting all angsty from the waiting."

"Very well then," Guilford responded. His Gloucester then raised its golden lance and spun it in front of him before having it come to rest, the lance's tip leveled at Kallen. "Let us test if Zero's words are truth, or merely puffery."

Kallen raised her Sutherland's right arm and extended it before her, the lance in her Knightmare's hand, pointing directly at Guilford's Gloucester. "Let's," Kallen simply smirked back. She then brought her Knightmare's arm back and gripped the lance with both of her hands, copying the stance of the Knight in front of her. _The reach will be a great help,_ Kallen's mind raced, _but his speed will nullify that advantage. Not to mention that he also has a lance. I guess the only way to win is through my sheer skill. I'm going to enjoy this._

The timers in both Knightmare's struck seven and both pilots spun their landspinners at maximum speed. Each of them left a cloud of dust as they sped towards one another, lances poised to pierce anything in their way.

The two warrior's lances met and crossed between the two of them as they collided at the center of the clearing. Each one's landspinners ferociously spinning, trying to achieve an advantage.

After a brief moment of no push gained from either Knightmare, Guilford began to overpower Kallen's Sutherland and started pushing her back.

"Damn it!" the crimson-haired woman cursed. "He's stronger as well." Kallen then readied her shoulder-mounted slash harkens to fire in an attempt to pierce the purple Knightmare's chest.

Guilford noticed the movement of Kallen's Sutherland, however. He immediately disengaged from the power struggle and his landspinners spun full speed in reverse so that he could maximize the distance between himself and Kallen.

Her slash harkens fired at the Gloucester as it retreated away from her, but Guilford's retreat was able to buy enough time for him to raise his lance in front of him and deflected the armor piercing weapons with the golden weapon.

"Not bad," Guilford complimented her as Kallen's harkens were brought back to their launchers. "You realized that you were at a disadvantage in a battle of strength, so you sought to take advantage of that by luring me in close so that I wouldn't be capable of dodging your harkens at such close range. You really are quite good indeed."

"Thanks for the compliment," Kallen accepted his words. "But don't think that I'll let you beat me because you acknowledged my skills."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Guilford responded to her as he readied his lance for another charge.

_I won't withstand another head-on collision like the last one,_ Kallen realized. _But this battle is far from over._

Guilford then charged at Kallen's Sutherland, lance gleaming in the sunlight as his landspinners squealed on the pavement below. Kallen noticed that Guilford's lance was directed at her Knightmare's left hip joint.

_He's going to try and immobilize me! _Kallen noticed. She immediately spun her Knightmare's landspinners at full speed in reverse to retreat from the Knight's charge and so she could buy herself some time to think. _I need to get rid of his lance,_ Kallen figured as she continued to fall back, the Gloucester slowly closing in on her. _If I can remove his reach advantage, then I can win this._

Kallen realized she was out of thinking time as Guilford's Knightmare came screaming at her. She reacted on instinct as she ordered her Sutherland to jump to the side so that Cornelia's Knight missed her and continued to charge past her like a matador with a bull, thus allowing her more thinking time to come up with a possible counter-strategy.

Guilford expertly piloted his Gloucester on a smooth arc as he turned around without losing any momentum and resumed his charge at Kallen, his Knightmare's cape flapping madly behind his Gloucester.

_Doesn't this guy have anything else?_ Kallen wondered to herself as her Sutherland hopped to the side once more to avoid another assault from her opponent. She then felt a light go off in her head as she noticed a overhead bridge to her left. "That's it!" she yelled to herself as Kallen finally came up with a possible strategy of victory. _Even if I don't finish him with it,_ she smirked to herself._ His infernal reach advantage will be no more._

Kallen turned her back to Guilford's Gloucester and fired her harkens onto the bridge. She then retracted her harken-lines and pulled her Sutherland up onto the roadway. The bridge was barren aside from a few abandoned vehicles sparsely located on the road, but nothing that she needed to really worry herself over. She then accelerated her Knightmare's landspinners forward and she tried to lure her foe after her.

She looked back after a brief moment of travel and saw that Guilford was following her at a cautious distance. It seemed like he was taking her as a serious threat.

After she reached the spot on the bridge that Kallen had wished to lead the Britannian Knight to, she turned her Knightmare around and threw her golden lance at the purple Gloucester. In response to her unexpected action, Guilford halted his advance on her and the lance she'd just thrown pierced the concrete just before his Knightmare's feet.

"You missed," Guildford reported to her, disappointment apparent in his voice. "I believed you'd be better than this. Honestly, throwing away your weapon is a rookie mistake."

"Who said I was aiming _at_ you?" Kallen grinned at Cornelia's Knight. She then fired both of her piercing slash harkens next to the lance in the concrete and watched as her plan worked.

"What the-" Guilford exclaimed as he watched the cracks in the concrete beneath him spider-web, lengthen, widen, and expand. The cracks continued their expansion behind him, just like Kallen wanted.

Guilford was forced to have his Gloucester jump up and forward in order to avoid falling with the bridge as it collapsed underneath him. He was forced to jump into the air, right at Kallen's Sutherland. He was at her mercy.

As Guilford's Knightmare was in the air, Kallen fired both of her shoulder-mounted slash harkens at Cornelia's personal Knight. She grew a smirk on her face as she watched her harkens fly true to the exact point she wanted them to go to, right at the Gloucester's hip joints.

_He'll try and somersault his Gloucester in the air in order for him to evade my harkens,_ Kallen planned. _And when he does, I'll take advantage of his momentary lack of sight to get behind him and finish him with my tonfas as he lands._ Kallen extended her tonfas as she watched her harkens soar towards her enemy. _This is what happens when you underestimate your enemies Britannian._

However, Guilford didn't do as Kallen had planned he would. As he reached the apex of his sky-arc, he noticed her harkens coming through the air and reacted instinctively. He fired his Gloucester's own slash harkens in response and they buried themselves in the concrete behind Kallen's Knightmare. He then retracted his lines as fast as they allowed and pulled himself out of the air, away from Kallen's trap, and directly behind her Sutherland. His Gloucester then whipped around faster than the eye could follow and his lance tip was mere inches away from her cockpit block. _She_ was at _his_ mercy.

"No way!" Kallen exclaimed in surprise at the situation being turned around so quickly. She just went from an assured victory to total defeat. "How?"

"You are an excellent pilot Ms. Kozuki," Guilford told her through the outer speakers of his Knightmare. "Were I a lesser man, then you would have undoubtedly bested me just now. Your plan just now was a stroke of pure genius. However, I am victorious on this day."

"But how!" Kallen shrieked back.

"Experience," Guilford informed her calmly. "That is the only thing which you lack. It is also how I was able to best you today. I hold near a decade's worth of continuous battles under my Princess' command. Each one further sharpening my mind and abilities as a warrior to better serve her highness."

"I see," Kallen acknowledged. "I am beaten then. I concede. You win this duel Sir Guilford."

She then ignited her ejection boosters and her Sutherland cockpit flew through the sky, away from her defeat.

"I'm so sorry," Kallen began to sob to herself. "I lost again, Naoto."

"Q-1!" Zero sounded frantic over the radio. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she responded, choking back her tears. She refused to show such weakness to Zero. _I can't let Zero see me fall apart like this because I lost._ "The worst injury is to my pride."

"That's a relief," Zero sighed in relief at her news. "I want you to go back to point H-8 and wait for me in the sewer pipes underground. Do you understand?"

"Roger that," Kallen confirmed her last orders of the battle.

Her radio remained deathly silent as her cockpit ceased its soaring and its parachutes expanded, slowly drifting her onto the ground.

Her shame at failing Zero was too great to bear.

* * *

"I can't believe Kallen lost," Lelouch whispered to himself from within his stolen Sutherland's pilot chair. "She actually lost to Guilford."

"Zero!" Lelouch heard B-5's voice come to him from over the radio-waves. "Is Q-1 alright?"

The dark-haired prince shook his head to shake himself out of his stupor. _I can't allow her defeat to ruin me,_ he reminded himself solemnly. "Q-1 will be just fine," Lelouch calmly informed the frantic Yamato Alliance member. "Her ejection seat activated successfully before Cornelia's Knight could administer the killing blow."

"What are your orders sir?" N-1's voice asked him.

_I hadn't planned on Kallen actually losing,_ he thought to himself as his mind continued to race, considering any and all options left open to him now that his Ace had been beaten and removed from the battle. _Morale is steadily dropping amongst the Yamato Alliance members now that my best pilot has been beaten. Guerilla warfare tactics won't work against that large of a force either. Cornelia would simply glass the entire area just to finish off whatever forces still remain. It's over. We lost. _I_ lost to Cornelia once more._ "We retreat," Lelouch finally answered the Yamato Alliance's leader.

"What?" N-1 responded, scandalized that the great Zero was admitting defeat to Britannia. "You're Zero! And we all have Knightmares. There's no way we could lose this!"

"We've already lost," he informed the Yamato leader.

"The hell we have!" N-1 shot back at him, screaming through the radio. "We've only just lost one pilot. We are still strong!"

"That 'one pilot' is worth more than all of your members in a Knightmare!" Lelouch snarled venomously at the man's words. "She is the only one here capable of taking on Cornelia's personal forces, and she lost!"

"I refuse to believe that," N-1 scoffed in response. "Aside from Q-1 losing her duel, all we've done is take out the Britannians all day long. I say we fight. And I say that we'll win. Isn't that right men!"

The fool was met with a chorus of "Yes, sir!"s amongst the members of the Yamato Alliance still in the battle (or so they thought).

Lelouch grit his teeth as the idiot just condemned his entire following to death. "Fine then," he said slowly. "You are welcome to continue to fight to your heart's content. But I am leaving. Anyone that is smart will follow my instructions, abandon their Sutherlands, and leave through the underground subway systems."

Lelouch then cut off his link with the Yamato Alliance before the cries of "Coward!" and other unsightly names could reach his ears and foul the air around him.

"A good leader must know when to retreat," Lelouch remembered. "Schneizel taught me that."

He then sent an open audio conference link to Cornelia's G-1 once more.

"I need to honor my debts," he told himself. "Otherwise I'm just a simple cheapskate. Oh well. I intended on telling Cornelia we were still alive anyways."

The conference link was accepted by the Britannians after a few moments of waiting.

"So," Cornelia started as the link between them connected, "it appears that your Champion lost." Lelouch could feel his older half-sister's grin through her words.

"Yes it does," Lelouch affirmed. "Now it is my turn to honor our wager."

"That it is," Cornelia told him with a serious tone to her voice. "Now, why was Clovis unable to find Lelouch and Nunnally's corpses? You agreed to give me all the information you have on them."

"Uh-uh," he scolded her. "That was not the terms of our wager," he reminded the Viceroy.

"You bastard," Cornelia spat venomously. "We had a deal. I stopped obliterating your filthy Eleven underlings for that duel, and you intend to betray our arrangement!"

"I didn't say that," he told his sister. "I have every intention of honoring the agreement we came to. I never agreed to tell you everything that I know."

"You bastard!" Cornelia shrieked over the line.

"Calm yourself princess," he requested politely. "I agreed to tell you why Clovis never found the bodies of the vi Britannia children, and I will tell you once you calm down."

"You must calm down Princess," Andreas Darlton's voice came through the audio-link. "Zero is a snake, but what he says is true."

Cornelia's deep, calming breaths came over the connection between his Sutherland and her Command Center. "You're right Darlton. I apologize Zero. It's just that my siblings and I were very close. This is news that I have sought out for a very long time."

"Very well," Lelouch nodded. "The reason that former Viceroy Clovis was never able to locate the bodies of Lelouch vi Britannia and Nunnally vi Britannia is because there are no corpses to be found."

"Why you," Cornelia's irritation from his half-answers present for all to notice in her voice. "Answer me this! Do my brother and sister still live?"

"They do," Lelouch revealed. "They are alive Cornelia."

"You mean that…" Lelouch couldn't see her, but he was certain that his sister was very close to crying at the moment. "You mean that Lelouch and Nunnally are still alive?" she pleaded.

"They are," he reaffirmed. "And they are in hiding. Lelouch uncovered just who was behind his mother's assassination attempt not long ago, and he and his sister do not wish to be found."

"But why not?" Cornelia begged him. "They have a loving family waiting for them."

"Cornelia," he called out her name gently. "Think about the night of Marianne vi Britannia's assassination."

"What do you mean?" she asked him. "You mean that… I demand you tell me who was behind Marianne's murder! I'll tear them apart with my bare hands!"

"I can't tell you that," Lelouch answered. "All I know is that the person at the head of the conspiracy was close to both Empress Marianne and Emperor Charles. I also know that the one behind it all is still a close confidante to your father."

"That can't be!" Cornelia vehemently denied. "What would… That night," she realized. "Marianne requested that her guard detail be removed. That must mean that she truly, completely trusted whoever it was that killed her. She never trusted anyone in the Imperial Court outside of father. Am I to believe that father had something to do with her murder?"

"You are not required to believe anything," Lelouch informed his stricken sister. "I will now take my leave. You should know that the rest of the Yamato Alliance refused my order to retreat and will continue to attempt an assault on your troops."

"Why'd you tell me that?" Cornelia asked him.

"Because soldiers who are unwilling to follow orders fail to understand that war is a struggle between pride and life," he answered coolly. _I learned that from you dear sister,_ he quietly added. He then ended the communication line between him and the Viceroy.

Lelouch then piloted his Sutherland over to the entrance to the underground sewage tunnels. As he traversed the Saitama ghetto in his Knightmare, he ignored the explosions that were no doubt what remained of the Yamato Alliance that refused to follow his advice and retreat.

As he exited his Knightmare and turned around the corner created by the fallen rubble from the battle, Lelouch spotted C.C., still dressed in full Zero garb, leaning against the wall next to the entrance of the underground sewage system of the Saitama area.

"Kallen lost," he informed the woman in his Zero outfit.

"I noticed," C.C.'s voice, modified by the mask, stated plainly. "Who would've thought that Kallen would lose to Guilford of all people?"

"The man is a respectable pilot," he reminded his lover. "I think that he and Jeremiah are on par with one another in terms of Knightmare combat capability."

C.C. shrugged in indifference at the information. "Oh well," she stated. "Did you still succeed in what today was really about?"

"I did," Lelouch confirmed with a nod of his head. "Cornelia now has the seed of doubt firmly implanted in her mind. She's never questioned her loyalty towards Charles before. But if it is implicated that her father may have had a hand in the murder of a woman whom she admired…"

"Then she could be turned against her own nation in response," C.C. finished for him. "I must say that you executed this performance quite well. What has become of the Yamato Alliance this time?"

"I don't rightly know," Lelouch answered truthfully. "I ordered them all to retreat, but their leader was too arrogant and prideful to leave. So I simply left. I assumed those explosion off in the distance are their work."

"You're probably right," C.C. agreed with him from behind his mask. "Shall we?" C.C. motioned into the dark tunnels below.

"Let's," Lelouch nodded as he and C.C. began to descend into the sewage tunnels together.

As he stepped off of the stairs onto the flat surface of the sewage tunnels pathway, the sound of a sobbing female reached his ears.

_Is that… Kallen?_

* * *

Kallen was sitting on the concrete pathway of the sewage system where Zero told her to go to and wait for him after she'd been beaten by Cornelia's Knight, Gilbert G. P. Guilford. She had pulled her knees up to her chin and was lightly sobbing underneath the only working light fixture in the entire Saitama sewage system. Her face was buried into her knees as she felt the warm tears fall down her cheeks.

"Why?" she asked herself through her sobs. She raised her face from her knees and looked at her open, shaking palms. "Why did I fail again? I swore I would never lose again after Naoto was captured. I could live with losing that monstrosity in Shinjuku, but to lose like that… Why am I such a failure!" she screeched to the darkness. "I not only failed my brother," she whispered, "I failed Zero too."

"You didn't fail me Q-1," Zero's voice echoed off of the walls.

Kallen bolted upright as her masked leader's voice registered in her mind. As she stood there, she wiped her eyes and face of any moisture in an attempt to try and hide the fact that she'd been crying for the last ten minutes.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized into the darkness. "You put your faith in me, and I let you down. I failed to defeat Cornelia's Knight."

Kallen then turned towards the sound of boots walking on the sewage system's pathway and witnessed Zero, dressed in his personal image, emerge from the darkness and step into the greenish light.

"I'm so sorry Zero," she continued to apologize as she bowed to the masked revolutionary. "I betrayed your faith in me to win."

"Oh I'm not Zero," a distinctively feminine voice came from the mask that Zero was known for. The person dressed as Zero then reached their hand up to the crown of Zero's mask and removed it from their head.

Kallen wasn't a lesbian, but even she was stunned at the sight of the woman dressed as Zero's facial beauty. Her skin was a truly snow-white alabaster, coupled with a pair of positively stunning golden eyes, and long, lustrous green hair.

"He's back there," the woman told her, gesturing with her gloved hand into the pitch-blackness behind her.

"Will you hurry up C.C.?" Zero's voice came from the shadows.

"Yeah, yeah," the woman, now identified with a name like C.C., said dismissively as she tossed Zero's mask back into the shadows from whence she came.

"Wonderful," Kallen heard Zero say as the sound of him catching his mask echoed off of the concrete walls. The distinctive hiss of Zero putting his mask back on met her ears. "It's good to see you again Q-1," Zero said as he walked into the light, dressed as a Britannian Infantry soldier and mask covering his entire head once more.

"I'm deeply sorry for losing," Kallen bowed to the right Zero this time as she reiterated her apology another time. "I failed you."

"You did _not_ fail me Kallen," Zero reiterated firmly. His voice leaving no room for discussion.

Kallen's eyes widened as she realized that the masked man had just called her by her name for the first time. _He didn't call me Q-1,_ she thought in awe. Her legs felt like jelly as she thought that, and she was forced to sit back down, staring upwards at the mask.

"Yes," Zero said from behind his mask. "I am disappointed that you were beaten by Cornelia's Knight."

Kallen winced as Zero declared that, but she decided to just let her leader speak to her for the time being. So she kept her mouth shut.

"However," Zero's voice became sincere. "I'm very glad that you're still alive. You are truly irreplaceable. If I lost you, then I would never be the same. You are the best Knightmare pilot there is. Tell me," he encouraged her," do you know why you lost today?"

"E-experience," she answered hesitantly. "Guilford told me that was why he beat me."

The black mask before her nodded. "Guilford is a great warrior. One of the best out there. You were at a gigantic disadvantage in the performance of your Knightmares. Cornelia's Knights both have personalized, top-of-the-line sixth generation Gloucesters that both could rival the Knights of the Round in performance and technology. You were fighting in a mass-produced, standard Sutherland Kallen. The only non-standard-issue weapon you had with you was one of the lances. Every advantage possible was firmly in Guilford's possession. Yet you placed him in a position that, otherwise, would have given you the victory today. Do you know why, Kallen?"

Kallen simply shook her head in response. Her tongue felt like it was made of lead all-of-a-sudden.

"Your skill," Zero stated firmly. "You are better than he is. You fought a man capable of fighting on par with the Knight of Twelve with a standard, fifth generation Knightmare. And he also told you himself that the only reason he beat you was because of his near-decade's worth of experience. Now what would happen if _you_ had the better Knightmare?"

Kallen's sapphire-blue eyes widened as she realized what Zero was saying to her. "I would've won easily," she answered, following his seemingly sound logic.

"Yes," Kallen thought that she saw a grin form behind the reflective glass mask. "You didn't fail me. The only way you could ever fail me is if you ever die. I have grand plans that hinge on your abilities as a warrior and pilot. So I want you to swear to me that you will always return from a battle, no matter what. Machines can be rebuilt, but hearts can never be replaced."

"I swear it," Kallen nodded. _I can't believe it,_ she thought to herself in wonder. _Even after I lost, he still believes in me. And he's so kind. He really is just like Naoto._

"Are you two done now?" C.C. asked the pair. "We really should be leaving now. Cornelia will be done playing soon enough."

Zero nodded to the green-haired woman. "Yes, we should." He then reached out a gloved hand to Kallen. "Let's go," he said to her gently.

Kallen grabbed his hand and he pulled her back up with a grunt.

"You really need to get some muscles on you Zero," C.C. said to the masked man teasingly.

"Don't I know it," Zero grumbled from behind the mask.

"Is that really your natural hair color," Kallen finally asked the million-dollar question everyone always wants to know about C.C.

"Why do you ask?" C.C. responded to her. Kallen felt a tingle go down her spine as she watched the green-haired woman grow a lecherous smile that would make Milly jealous. "Would you like to find out? You know I have always wondered the same thing about that crimson on your scalp."

Zero laughed through the mask as C.C. effectively turned Kallen into a red-faced, utterly-nonsense speaking, vehemently accusation denying, schoolgirl.

Unbeknownst to either of the two woman walking with him in the sewage tunnels, a few drops of blood made their way down from Zero's nostrils from behind his mask as he pictured what C.C had just suggested.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm back, and the Saitama battle between Zero and Cornelia has reached its conclusion. Kallen was beaten by Sir Guilford in a one-on-one duel, Cornelia knows that Lelouch and Nunnally are still alive and are in hiding, and the Second Princess thinks that Emperor Charles himself may have had a hand in Marianne's assassination.

I guess I should explain my reasoning behind how Kallen was actually beaten by Guilford. Lord have mercy, I've been committing Code Geass sacrilege left and right, seeing as how Kallen lost to someone other than Suzaku. Lelouch explained why Kallen lost pretty well. Guilford had _every_ advantage possible in Knightmare performance. I am well-aware of just how good a pilot and fighter Kallen is, but I just find it unbelievable in some stories that I've read where she fights Suzaku (while still in the Lancelot) with a simple Sutherland (or worse, her one-armed _Glasgow_) to a near-draw. Skill can only make up so much, and technology is what drives Code Geass and the Knightmares. Throughout the entire series, Kallen and Suzaku's skills were comparable, if not dead even. She never had enough skill to fight on par with Suzaku in an inferior Knightmare, and Guilford has so much more experience than either her or Suzaku. Another thing that her duel accomplished, was to bring Kallen down to earth and make sure that she knows she isn't unbeatable. Anyone can lose at any time, and Kallen needed to learn that. I believe that losing to Guilford actually helps her more than it hurts her. After-all, people learn more from their defeats than they ever do from their victories.

Now for the second part. Cornelia li Britannia now knows that both of the vi Britannia children are still alive. Now how will this affect what is to come? I guess that you'll have to continue reading to find out, now won't you? I will only say this, Lelouch doesn't do anything (and I mean _anything_) without a reason. Even his words are carefully chosen.

I think that about covers everything in the chapter. Yes, next is the Kawaguchi hotel-jacking, but there is also some transitionary POVs before that which I need to write out. They are very key to what will happen down the line, so the Black Knights' debut will be at least two chapters as well. The only guarantee that I can offer you is that the Refrain chapter will only be one, because there isn't as much that I can write about for what I have planned for that chapter.

I guess that's about all I have to talk about this time. You'll see what Saitama's changes will affect what is to come soon enough.

Later. I'll see you all next week in the next installment of the Knights and Princesses arc.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Euphemia was still sitting at her desk in the Sub-Viceroy's office. She'd spent the entire day going over all of the paperwork that Stella had given her.

"Finally," Euphy let out a sigh as she placed the last piece of paperwork for the day in her 'Finished' pile on her desk. "I've been here all day," she groaned. "A nice bath would feel great right about now."

She stood up from her cushioned chair and stretched out her still-stiff limbs. Euphy then turned to look at the clock on her office's wall and her eyes nearly popped out of her head as her brain processed what time it really was.

"I can't believe I've been sitting here for thirteen straight hours!" she howled in frustration. "This is all your fault," she accused, pointing at the stacks of papers on her desk. "If you weren't here then I would be asleep by now!"

Euphy couldn't believe just how late it truly was. She knew that she'd sent Stella home a while ago, but this was just plain ridiculous. She'd never stayed up past midnight before. Never. Yet here she was, standing in her office, with the clock on her wall reading in plain, neon numbers "4:04."

"I've gotta get up in four hours," she whined aloud. "Why?" she drawled out. "Why did Cornelia leave all of her paperwork for me to do, on top of all mine? This is just pure torture."

Euphy let out an exhausted sigh before she reminded herself that there was nothing she could do about it now. She then left her office and dragged her feet across the carpeted floors of the government bureau towards her private bedroom in the Viceroy's Palace. She couldn't wait to just fall onto her excessively large bed and simply sleep until she was forced to wake back up at eight.

As she passed her older sister's office, however, she heard some noises coming from behind the oaken doors.

Euphy winced as she heard the sound of a vase crash into a wall and shatter apart.

"I don't care what it takes!" her sister was shrieking. "I want them found! If what he said is true then I want them here now!"

"Princess, please calm down," that was definitely Cornelia's second Knight, Guilford's, voice.

"Don't you dare tell me to calm down!" Cornelia screamed back. "Why aren't they here already!?"

"Because we don't know where to look," Darlton's voice replied calmly. "If what he said is true, then they've successfully hidden themselves for seven years. That means we'll only waste more resources trying to find them unless we know where to look."

"I already told you I don't care what it takes!" Cornelia howled in response. The sound of a wooden piece of furniture being overturned immediately followed. "If he lied to me then I'll rip him apart with my bare hands!"

"We know that your highness," the younger of the two Knights spoke. "And we will find them. We just need to find a lead."

"Once we do," Darlton continued after Guilford, "I assure you that you will be the first to find out."

The entire side of Euphy's face was firmly pressed against the doors of the Viceroy's office from her curiosity to know what had happened to make her regal older sister act out in such a way. _What happened?_ Euphy wondered to herself. _Not very many things could make sister act like this._

"But first," Darlton's voice was a lot closer than it just was," we need to deal with an eavesdropper."

Darlton opened the door so quickly that Euphy fell forward onto the carpeted floor of the Viceroy's office face-first.

"Euphy?" her elder sister sounded confused at Euphemia's presence. "What are you still doing up? You should be asleep by now."

Euphy's face was pounding as she used her arms to help raise herself up off of the floor. She then took in the sight of the room she'd fallen into rather ungracefully.

Apparently, whatever had been happening in this office had been going on for quite a while. Cornelia had thrown anything she could get her hands on and shattered everything that could be considered breakable. This was evidenced by the multitudes of glass and ceramic fragments scattered all-throughout the Viceroy's office. The elder li Britannia had also flipped over and broken any furniture that had the misfortune of getting in Cornelia's way whilst she was fuming about whatever it was that had made her this upset.

Euphy rubbed her sore nose as she stood up and tried to dust off the dust on her dress. "I was actually just going to bed," she finally answered her sister.

"Why weren't you in bed yet?" her over-protective older sister asked her.

"Because I was working," Euphemia answered truthfully.

"What could have kept you up so late?" Cornelia probed.

"Paperwork," Euphemia told her sister flatly. "I had quite a bit of it."

"Oh," Cornelia realized. "I meant to have my paperwork returned to my office when I got back, but I must've forgotten," she admitted sheepishly.

"You don't say," the younger Princess replied dryly. Euphy then gave as good of a glare she could muster, but it fell short and turned into a mere stare. "I ended up doing both of our jobs today."

"Sorry Euphy," the elder Princess apologized. "I didn't mean to do that. It's just that I learned some pretty shocking news earlier at Saitama."

"What happened to the civilians?" Euphemia demanded of the elder li Britannia daughter.

Euphy had been adamantly against the entire Saitama operation once she had found out about it. Her sister had tried to keep it a secret from her, but the Sub-Viceroy had heard a soldier talking about it at lunch and was immediately reviled by the information. Euphy despised all forms of violence, but she knew why Cornelia had been chosen to become Area Eleven's new Viceroy after Clovis' murder. Cornelia's job was to wipe out the terrorists that plagued all throughout Area Eleven. She accepted the fact that there would be battles, but what her elder sister was preparing to do was nothing short of pure genocide. When Euphemia had stormed into the Viceroy's office demanding answers, Cornelia's Knights both carried her back to her office, kicking and screaming at them for going through with this plan, and then locked her in the Sub-Viceroy's office until after Cornelia and her assault force had left to begin her attack on the Saitama ghetto.

"Very little actually," Andreas Darlton answered before Cornelia could.

"I know what you had planned," Euphemia hissed at them. "They were peacefully living as best as they could and you ordered another massacre!"

"That was our plan," Cornelia responded to her younger sister's rare show of anger. "But that isn't how it happened."

"Explain," Euphemia demanded once more as she crossed her arms over her chest with a huff.

"The civilians were almost all gone," Darlton reported to the younger Princess. "They weren't there when we began our attack."

"Darlton speaks the truth Euphy," Cornelia nodded to her first Knight. "It was almost as if they were evacuated beforehand by someone that knew about our plan before we began."

"That's not possible," Euphemia huffed. "You didn't even tell your military 'advisors' about it until noon. How could anyone possibly know about it?"

"I don't know," Cornelia shrugged to her sister.

_I don't believe them,_ Euphy thought to herself in frustration. _I read those plans myself after sister left. They must be lying to try and protect me from the truth._

"About what we found out during the assault?" Darlton asked his Princess.

"Tell Euphy," Cornelia ordered. "You can tell her Darlton. I'm going to bed. I'm too tired to do anything else for the time being anyways." She then turned and faced Euphy again. "You can rest after Darlton tells you about what we found out in the ghetto. I'll handle your duties until you feel rested."

"But sister-" Euphy began to protest.

"It's the least I can do," Cornelia cut her younger sibling off before she could finish. "Especially since you did my job today."

"Okay," Euphy pouted.

"I'm going to bed then," Cornelia declared. "You can take tomorrow off Darlton."

"Thank you your highness," Darlton acknowledged with a bow.

The Viceroy and Guilford both then left, leaving Darlton and Euphemia in the Viceroy's office.

"Let's talk in my room," Euphy said to the General. "It's still a little messy in here, and I don't want to get in the way of the cleaners."

"Very well Princess," Darlton agreed with her before he followed her out of Cornelia's office, across the Government Bureau into the Viceroy's Palace, and into her room.

Euphy then plopped down onto her bed and gestured for the scarred Knight to sit next to her on the bed. He took his seat right where she'd gestured for him to.

"How long has it been since we were able to talk like this?" Euphy asked the dark-skinned Knight.

"Two years," Darlton informed her. "That was before your sister began her campaign into the Arab Areas."

"Has it really been that long?" Euphy asked in wonder. "I miss our talks."

"I do as well," Darlton agreed with a chuckle. "Remember when Guilford first became your sister's Knight?"

"How could I ever forget?" she asked rhetorically. "Lelouch and I couldn't look at him without laughing to ourselves for three weeks."

The large Knight couldn't suppress a grin as he recalled Guilford's 'Right of Passage' as Euphemia had called it. "That was still cruel of you to make him model your mother's dresses for you."

"Wasn't my idea," Euphy denied with a giggle. "Surprisingly enough, it was Nunnally's."

"I'm glad you remember them both," Darlton told her.

"How could I forget them?" She then looked up at her bed's overhead canvas. "I've loved the two of them for so long. You just can't forget people who've taken up that much space in your heart."

Cornelia's first Knight nodded to her. "No you can't. Did you read the battle-plan after we left?"

"I did," Euphy nodded in affirmation.

Darlton cleared his throat. "Princess Cornelia believed that the reason Zero was able to get so close to Clovis was because the man masqueraded as a Britannian soldier. She wanted to recreate similar conditions to Shinjuku in order to draw him out and have Zero execute the same plan he did during the Shinjuku disaster. She was banking on the idea that Zero was overconfident enough to try and kill her while she was still on the G-1.

"We executed the plan after the situation became the exact same as Shinjuku. Our forces began to get chipped away little by little at the beginning. We then received reports that the terrorists were fighting us with Sutherlands stolen from our own forces. So instead of continuing to waste the lives of her men, Princess Cornelia ordered all troops to fall back. She believed Zero was hiding amongst her troops.

"However, Zero wasn't as overconfident as she predicted he'd be, but he is definitely as dramatic as we believed. As soon as our troops reported in, an open audio conference link reached our Command Center. We connected the link and the Viceroy and Zero conversed for a time. The two of them then eventually agreed to a duel between a Knight of her choosing against one of Zero's subordinates. The arrangement was this: should Zero's Champion win then he and the princess would meet face-to-face with no hostile intentions or actions toward either one of them, and if her Knight won then he would provide information on something the Viceroy has sought for a very long time.

"Guilford won the duel, but he said that he nearly lost to Zero's Champion. Zero then reached back out to us to honor the arrangement he and Cornelia agreed upon. What he told us was fairly shocking to say the least."

"What did Zero say that upset Cornelia so bad?" Euphy interjected.

"That Lelouch and Nunnally are still alive," the scarred Knight finally revealed to her.

Euphy's magenta eyes widened at what Darlton had told her. "I knew it!" she exclaimed as she bolted up off her bed.

"But that's not all," the Knight stopped her from celebrating just yet. "He also implied some… unsettling thoughts."

"Such as?" Euphy asked curiously.

Darlton let out a lengthy, deep sigh before looking directly into the younger li Britannia's eyes. "Apparently, Lelouch and Nunnally are in hiding and do not wish to be found."

"Not surprising, considering."

"But that's not all," Darlton continued. "Zero said that Lelouch found out who was behind Lady Marianne's murder seven years ago."

"Did Zero say who it was?" Euphy asked, anxious to finally find out whom the culprit was that drove away her siblings.

"No," Darlton informed her as he shook his head. "All he said to us was that it was someone close to both Marianne and the Emperor, and that the murderer was still close to his majesty."

"And Cornelia believed him?" she asked her sister's Knight with a raised eyebrow.

"Your sister was the head of Empress Marianne's personal guard," Darlton reminded the younger Princess. "The Princess said that Lady Marianne requested her personal guard detail be removed that night. That meant that Marianne trusted whomever it was that she met with that night completely. You were too young to remember, but the Empress never trusted anyone within the Royal Court other than the Emperor himself."

"You can't mean that…" Euphy gasped.

"I don't know if what Zero said is true or not," Darlton informed her. "But what he says does make sense. It is an outrageous thought, not to mention treasonous. But it may be possible that his majesty had a hand in his own wife's assassination."

"No way," Euphy breathed out.

"That is why her highness was so furious earlier," Cornelia's Knight told her. "She wants to find your half-sister and half-brother before anyone else can so that she can protect them from harm should the murderer find them first."

"I see," Euphy responded slowly.

Darlton then stood up from the side of her bed and hugged the younger Princess. "The Princess wants this kept as close to the chest as possible," he told Euphy. "Guilford, myself, her highness, and now you are the only ones who know about this. I shouldn't need to tell you how dangerous what I've told you is."

"You don't," Euphy said quietly as she returned Darlton's embrace. "I won't tell anyone."

Darlton smiled at the younger Princess as they ended their embrace. "Take care Euphy, and be careful."

"I will," she assured the scarred man. "I doubt that I'll get any sleep now though."

"I doubt your sister will either," Darlton replied solemnly.

"Then why'd she-"

"Because she wants you to rest tomorrow," the Knight answered her before Euphy could finish. "If you're going to observe the Sakuradite conference in two days then you need to be rested and attentive."

"I know that," Euphy sighed out. "It's just that…"

"Relax," Darlton assured the pink-haired Princess. "Her highness will probably have Guilford handle your responsibilities tomorrow anyways."

"Fine," Euphy responded.

"Oh, and one more thing," Darlton called back to her before he left her room.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I believe that Zero and Lelouch may know each other fairly well," Darlton told her.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because the last thing Zero said to us was something her highness says all the time," the Knight answered her. "Zero said that soldiers who are unwilling to follow orders fail to understand that 'War is a struggle between Pride and Life.' Only those close to the Princess know that is her creed."

"I see," Euphemia accepted his theory. "What you say makes a lot of sense. Thanks for telling me."

"Of course," Darlton smiled to her. "Now I think you should try and get some sleep at least."

"I'll try," she chuckled. "Good night Andy."

"The pet name again?" the Knight groaned. "Good night your highness." He then closed the door behind him as he left.

Euphy then changed into her normal sleeping attire and climbed into her bed. She pulled the covers up to her chin and closed her eyes, hoping to start feeling tired.

_That's not possible,_ Euphy dismissed what she'd just thought.

* * *

"So what are we going to do today Lelouch?" C.C. asked as she emerged from her shower, towel wrapped around her.

"Same thing we do every day C.C.," Lelouch answered her. "Try to take over the world."

"I believe that you're getting a bit ahead of yourself," the emerald-haired woman giggled.

"Am I?"

"Yes," she chuckle in response. "We're still a long ways off from that goal."

"I guess that you're right," the prince sighed. "But it was a cool answer, wasn't it?"

"Seemed more corny and cliché to me," C.C. answered with a grin. "You sounded just like a deranged lab-mouse with a god complex just then."

"Did not," he huffed.

"Did too, and I'll prove it."

"Just try it," Lelouch dared.

"Do I need to go to the video rental store and find the cartoon to prove it to you?" C.C. grinned at him.

"No thanks!" he quickly responded to her. _The last time you did that you came back with something that I'd rather not remember watching at all,_ Lelouch thought to himself with a small shudder.

"It's about time for you to get to class," she informed her lover as she let her towel drop to the floor. She then strutted herself over to her chest of drawers and got out a simple pair of jeans and a yellow shirt.

"You're right," he realized as he looked at his clock. "I'll let you handle the final touches while I'm at school."

"Yeah, yeah," the immortal woman replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I'll take care of it. Don't worry."

"Thanks," the Dark King replied with a smile. He then left his room after giving C.C. a quick peck on the cheek (No, not those cheeks.) and headed off to class.

Lelouch took his seat next to Suzaku in his morning class and enjoyed a simple conversation between himself, Rivalz, and Suzaku about the local Ashford gossip. Lelouch had never really been a gossip, but you never know when you'll run across great blackmail material to use on noble families in Area Eleven.

"Hey Lulu!" Shirley called to him as he left the Ashford Science building after his last class had finally ended.

"What is it Shirley?" he asked the orangette.

"Prez is looking for you," the girl informed him. "She asked me to help find you because I apparently always know where you are."

_I really hope that you don't,_ Lelouch thought morbidly. "Well, you found me," he stated. "Now what?"

"Oh yeah!" Shirley exclaimed energetically. "Prez asked me to bring you to the Council room if I found you before she did."

_What does Milly want _now_?_ he asked himself tiredly. "Lead on Shirley." _And I was so close to getting away too._

"Thanks for bringing him to me Shirley," Milly said to the Student Council member as she led Lelouch into the office. "You did a nice job setting up Arthur's playhouse too."

Lelouch noticed that Kallen was also present in the room as he walked in, but no other members.

"Kallen was supposed to help you, wasn't she?" Milly asked Shirley slyly.

"She said she was going to," the orange-haired girl answered. "But she wasn't here yesterday."

The resident Queen of Ashford Academy then sent a glare Kallen's way.

"Look I'm sorry," Kallen said in response, wilting under Milly's patented glare. "I've apologized a hundred times already. I can't control when I get sick. What'll it take to get you off my back about this?"

The buxom blond woman then grew one of her dangerous smiles, and it made everyone in the room flinch as that smirk appeared. Arthur hissed in response and then scampered into the safety of his new home to get away from the Student Council President.

Milly reached down into the front of her shirt and pulled out a simple envelope.

"Milly," Lelouch warned.

"It's not those," his blonde friend assured him. "This is just a little something that Kallen can do to make up to Shirley for breaking her promise." She then handed the envelope to the red-haired woman with her dangerous smile still in place.

Kallen took the white envelope hesitantly and then opened it carefully. She then reached into it and pulled out a tri-folded piece of paper and unfolded it gingerly.

Lelouch had never seen a woman turn that shade of red before.

"You-you-you can't be serious," Kallen sputtered out over the slip of paper.

"Oh I'm deadly serious," Milly told Kallen with a lecherous grin plastered on her face. "Broken promises are not acceptable within the Student Council." She then turned towards Lelouch and asked, "Isn't that right Vice-Prez?"

A chilling sensation traveled down Lelouch's spine as he met eyes with the blonde._ Oh crap. Oh crap,_ Lelouch was mentally panicking. _Think Lelouch. Think! Have you broken any promises with Milly recently? She hasn't told me what her favor is yet, so I didn't break that one._ Lelouch's violet eyes widened as he remembered another promise that he'd made with her recently. _Shit._

"What'd you do Lulu?" Shirley asked him, concern plain in her voice.

Cold sweat began to fall from his brow. "Nothing you need to worry about Shirley," he answered his admirer. _I don't want you caught up in this._

"The two of us will discuss what happened between ourselves," Milly informed everyone in the room. "Now then," she turned to the still red-faced Kallen. "Do you plan on breaking any other promises Kallen?"

"Hell no!" Kallen exclaimed quickly in response.

"Good," Milly clapped her hands together next to her cheek. "Just remember what that piece of paper says to do and I'll tell you when."

Kallen took that as her cue to leave and did just that. As she passed him, Lelouch heard her mumble, "Damned she-devil and her perverted mind."

Lelouch gulped audibly. "What is Kallen gonna have to do?" he asked the blonde.

"You'll find out," Milly sang in response. "You can go now Shirley. Dear little Lulu and I need to have a private talk."

"You didn't get someone pregnant, did you Lulu?" Shirley asked him cautiously.

Lelouch sputtered in surprise at Shirley's off-the-wall question.

Milly burst out laughing at Shirley's over-active imagination. "Don't worry Shirley," the blue-eyed woman said after she'd calmed down and wiped a few tears from her eyes. "It's not that. But it is something that dear little Lulu will have some answering to do."

"I'll be fine," Lelouch stopped his admirer from insisting she stay and having Milly's sights placed on her. "This is a private matter between us, but nothing like that," he quickly clarified. _Where the _hell_ did me getting someone pregnant come from?_

"Okay," Shirley said defeatedly. She then turned and trudged out of the Student Council office and closed the door behind her.

Milly then walked over to the door and locked it so that nobody would be able to barge in and save Lelouch from her interrogation.

"Now then," the blonde woman began as she turned back to Lelouch. "Since I've finally got you alone, will you tell me why you risked being revealed to the world for Suzaku? I know he's your friend and all, but I just don't understand it."

"Fine," Lelouch sighed as he sat down at the table. "Take a seat so that I can try to explain."

Milly sat down in the chair directly across from Lelouch. "Now talk," she ordered him.

The prince-in-hiding let out a deep breath. "To put it simply, I was worried.

"Worried about what," she asked him.

"I was worried about what the other students would do," he answered flatly. "To them, Suzaku is just an 'Honorary Britannian,' so they wouldn't care for him at all. Not to mention the fact that he was accused, unjustly at that, of murdering Clovis."

"But he was proved innocent though," Milly pointed out to him.

"Milly, _we_ know how it really works out there," Lelouch told her. "We both know not to trust what we're told by the media completely. Hell, we _lived_ through it seven years ago. However, there are plenty of people here who will blindly believe anything and everything that they are told by the 'oh so unbiased' media. Both of us may know that Suzaku was made into a scapegoat by the Purist faction to cover up their own failings and to further their own agenda, but most people out there aren't aware of the inner-workings of politics."

"Okay," she conceded his point. "I'll give you that. So the students would be suspicious of him. I highly doubt Suzaku wouldn't be able to handle himself."

"You have far too much faith in your fellow students," Lelouch told her.

"Your inner Prince is showing Lelouch."

"I know," he chuckled. "But what I say is nothing but the truth. People have an irrational fear towards that which they don't understand. They either choose to fear and revile it, or to try and understand it themselves. Very few people ever choose the latter of the two. It's just so much easier to simply accuse what they don't comprehend and convince themselves that it is evil and doesn't belong with them."

"Is this what they taught you in Pendragon," Milly asked him. "Because it's really just sounding like a bunch of cynicistic nonsense to me."

"No," he answered her with a simple shake of his head. "They told me that I was a 'superior breed' than that of the rest of the world and that one day the 'glory of Britannia' will encompass the entire world."

"Do you believe that?" she asked seriously.

Lelouch shook his head once more. "I refuse to believe that. While I may be more intelligent than most people, I don't believe I am necessarily superior to anyone else. There are others out there whom are just as smart as I am. There also people out there who are more athletic than I am. People exist who can sing better, run faster, and think just as quickly as I can. Based on those observations, I don't believe that I'm 'superior' in any way."

"Then what did you mean earlier?" Milly asked him seriously. "Where did you get such an outlook on life?"

"Through my observations these last seven years," he answered her plainly. "People always react in a set pattern. Either they accept what they don't know, or they hate and scorn it. The best example of that would be how the Japanese people are treated by the Britannians here in Area Eleven."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't play dumb Milly," Lelouch scolded her. "I know that you've seen how the 'Elevens' are treated. They are forced to live in the ghettos, believe to be savages by the Britannian populace, and are repeatedly beaten for no reason aside from 'entertainment.' It doesn't matter if they are 'Honorary Britannians' or not."

Milly winced as his harsh, true words reached her ears. "So why did you risk being found out for Suzaku? I understand your reasoning for doing it, but answer me truthfully. I get why you're so concerned, but why?"

"Surely you noticed how Nina looked at him with such fear?"

"Nina has her own reasons," Milly defended the Council's reclusive genius.

"I don't doubt it," Lelouch acknowledged. "But Suzaku had no part in whatever spawned her irrational fear of Elevens. She had no reason to act in such a way towards him. Nina simply feared Suzaku because he was Japanese."

"You're avoiding the question," the blonde woman pointed out shrewdly.

Lelouch let out a lengthy sigh. "I didn't want Suzaku to be treated like some kind of filth or trash," he revealed. "He was the first real friend I ever had, and he still is my closest friend and ally. When Nunnally and I came here to Japan, the three of us became closer than most families. We were closer than real brothers, and I owed it to him."

"Now, how much of that story was true?"

"Not much," he admitted sheepishly.

"I figured as much," Milly sighed. "Suzaku's nice and all, but I thought that him saving a Britannian Prince before you even met was kind of farfetched."

"That's because you know who I really am," Lelouch retorted dryly. "To be honest, the two of us didn't get along very well when we first met. The two of us were the exact same. We were both a pair of headstrong, stubborn little brats who hated each other for who our parents were. But we both got over ourselves eventually, thanks to Nunnally, and the two of us became the first real friends that either of us had ever truly had."

"I guess that I've done enough probing for today," Milly finally said as she stood up from the table.

"_Your_ curiosity is actually sated?" Lelouch asked skeptically.

"Not entirely," she admitted with a smirk. "But I know when not to pry. I got my answers. That's really all I wanted to do."

"So I guess that's it then?" he asked.

Milly shrugged. "For now it is."

She then walked over to the door and unlocked it.

"Thanks Milly," Lelouch said to her sincerely.

"Don't you need to be somewhere?" she reminded him slyly. "Rivalz is standing with his bike right at the front gate looking like he's waiting for someone."

Lelouch's violet eyes opened wide as he realized what she meant. "Crap! I need to go! This one's the biggest pot yet!"

Milly giggled playfully. "Don't worry," she assured the former prince. "I won't tell Shirley."

"Thanks Milly," he said to her as he sprinted past her and hopped into Rivalz's sidecar, out of breath.

Lelouch didn't see it as he ran by, but Milly had a sincere smile on her face as she watched him scramble over to his blue-haired friend's motorbike.

* * *

"Welcome back," Ohgi said to her as Kallen met up with him and the rest of her older brother's old resistance cell.

"Good to be back," the red-haired Knightmare pilot answered her older brother's best friend in life.

It was the morning after she'd gotten 'that' piece of paper from that thrice-damned blonde woman. She'd gotten a message from Zero yesterday, detailing a meeting point for her to reunite with her nakama.

_Thank God it's a weekend,_ she thought to herself. _I don't think I could survive anything else that woman could think up._

"It's great to have another woman around," Inoue said as Kallen arrived. "I don't know if I could've kept my sanity much longer. Seeing as how I'm surrounded by idiots," she added on with a glare directed towards Tamaki.

"Hey," Tamaki tried to defend himself, "it's not my fault the sake tasted so damned good. Blame Yoshida for finding the good stuff."

"Now, now," Ohgi stepped in before Inoue tried to pull out her sidearm and turn the group's comedic relief into Swiss cheese. "We're all comrades here. No need to get violent."

"Yeah Inoue," Tamaki said from behind Minami. "There's no need to get angry."

"Don't use me as a shield!" Minami yelled at Tamaki.

Kallen sighed as she watched the situation escalate, then Ohgi would step in to calm everyone down, and the whole situation would then start up for a different reason. Each one usually began with Tamaki saying or doing something. This process continued on for around ten minutes before everyone had gotten in their yelling and been given a stern talking-to by the former schoolteacher.

_He must have plenty of experience with immature children,_ Kallen thought to herself with a smile as she watched Ohgi do his thing and calm everybody down.

"Alright," Ohgi let out an exasperated sigh. "Now that everybody's calm I can tell you all where Zero wants us to go next."

"Whattaya mean next?" Tamaki blurted out. "Isn't this where Zero said for us to meet him?"

The entire group, minus Tamaki, had a collective face-palm at the other redhead's stupidity.

"No Tamaki," Kallen finally spoke up. "This is where Zero said that _we_ would meet up. Meaning all of you guys would meet up with me here. Not Zero."

"This whole thing's too damn complicated," Tamaki huffed. "Why couldn't Zero just meet us here and get it over with?"

"Maybe because he's the most wanted man in Area Eleven right now," Kallen stated matter-of-factly. "You're never going to get that famous so I doubt that an idiot like yourself would ever understand what the word 'subtlety' means."

"What was that you little shrimp?" Tamaki challenged with a raised fist.

"You heard me," she fired back.

"That's it!" Ohgi roared at them. "I'm ordering the two of you, as your superior, to stop fighting for the next hour. Understood?"

"Yeah," Tamaki pouted since he got scolded. Again.

"Where to next Ohgi?" Kallen asked, unfazed by what just happened. She'd just wanted to poke a little fun anyways, so it didn't hurt her to be ordered to stop fighting with the village idiot.

"In there," the group's leader pointed at a large-scale parking garage. "Zero sent me a picture of what he'll be in. All we need to do is find it."

"Right," Kallen nodded.

"Well, lead on Ohgi," Minami gestured towards the meeting area.

"You are the only one who knows what the thing looks like," Inoue pointed out.

The group of resistance fighters then followed Ohgi into the parking garage.

"Hey Ohgi?" Kallen called to the old teacher as she walked up next to the group's leader.

"What is it Kallen?" Ohgi responded.

Kallen bit her lower lip in frustration. "Did… Did Zero tell you guys about what happened in Saitama?"

"He did," Ohgi nodded. "Zero actually told us about it the night before it happened. Didn't he tell you about what we were doing?"

"What do you mean?" Kallen asked, curious as to what Ohgi and the others were doing the other day. _Is this what Zero meant when he told me that he had other plans for them?_ she asked herself.

Ohgi let out a slow breath. "Well I'm not surprised that he didn't tell you. Zero instructed us not to contact you so that we wouldn't distract you while you were in the fighting."

"What were you guys doing while I was fighting?" she asked once more. "Are you saying that you guys were in Saitama and you weren't doing any fighting?"

"Yeah," Ohgi nodded to her. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Then what were you doing there?" the crimson-haired warrior reiterated her question again. "If you were there but you weren't fighting Cornelia's forces, then what did Zero have you do?"

Ohgi gave her a warm smile. "Did you notice how there weren't any civilians getting caught up in the battle?"

"No, I didn't," Kallen admitted. "But now that you mention it, I don't recall seeing any civilian corpses anywhere. Why?"

"That's what we were doing," Ohgi grinned.

Kallen's sapphire eyes widened as she realized just what Ohgi was telling her. "You mean that…"

"Yep," Sugiyama confirmed her theory. "We were there all night getting all the non-Yamato people out of Saitama.

"It was hard," Inoue admitted to her, "but we got them all into the underground subway system and away from the area before Cornelia started her attack."

"I don't know how he found out about it," Yoshida said to her, "but I'm glad he told us about it. Seeing those faces of relief really made it all worth it."

"So what happened in the actual fighting?" Tamaki asked of his fellow red-head eagerly awaiting her answer. "Did you get to bust in some Britannian skulls?"

"I did," Kallen nodded to her favorite hot-head. "I also fought one of Cornelia's personal Knights in an official duel."

"No way," Tamaki breathed.

"Which one?" Ohgi asked, concern plain-to-see in his voice.

"He said his name was Guilford I think," she answered.

"And I'll bet my buddy Kallen kicked that Brit's stuck-up ass all the way back to Pendragon!" Tamaki exclaimed.

"Actually," Kallen admitted sheepishly, "he beat me."

"What!" the rest of her group yelled out simultaneously.

"You lost?" Ohgi asked her questioningly.

"I don't believe it," Tamaki wailed as tears fell down his cheeks. "If Kallen lost then there's no way we can beat him."

"Wow," Yoshida breathed out in wonder. "Did Tamaki just admit Kallen's better than him?"

"I think he just did," Inoue agreed.

"Satan must be freezing down in hell right now," Minami said seriously.

"Must be," Kallen agreed with the trio. All four of them simultaneously burst out laughing.

"So how'd you lose?" Ohgi asked Kallen after she'd wiped the tears from her eyes from laughing so hard.

"Guilford told me that he beat me because he has so much more experience than I do," she informed them all.

"That's it?" Inoue asked dryly.

"That's it," Kallen confirmed to her fellow female. "Zero met up with me after I lost and explained to me just why I lost, and how it was that I nearly beat him."

"And?" Minami encouraged her to continue her story.

"Zero told me that I was better than him," she continued to inform them all. "He said that, on paper, Guilford's total advantage in Knightmare performance should have resulted in my swift, decisive defeat. But Guilford told me himself that the only reason he beat me in our duel was because of his near-decade's worth of experience compared to my few month's worth. I fought him in a standard, mass-produced, fifth generation Sutherland. Guilford was fighting me in a customized, sixth-generation Gloucester whose performance rivals that of the Knights of the Round. The only reason I'm not curled up in a ball in my room right now is because of what Zero told me that day. Zero got me to believe that, should I get a better Knightmare, I would beat Cornelia's Knight easily."

"Zero really is a great guy," Ohgi said after she'd finished her story.

"Yeah," Kallen agreed. She then looked away from them all and stared off into space. "He really is."

"That's it!" Ohgi exclaimed as he pointed at a maroon monstrosity of a vehicle. "That's where Zero said to meet up with him."

"Finally," Minami groaned.

"Oh get over it," Inoue told Minami.

Ohgi opened up the door and hesitantly poked his head in the large vehicle first.

"What are you waiting for?" Zero's voice asked from within the vehicle. "Come on in. As of now this will be our hideout."

The members of the Kozuki group filed in and each one had a similar reaction of awe and wonder at the sight of the vehicle's interior.

It was more mansion than it was vehicle though, Kallen noted. The inside of what Zero had just called their new base was nearly as luxurious as some noble's houses that Kallen had been to in Area Eleven. It had a fully stocked bar, a half-moon wrap-around couch around a modestly-sized table, a fully functioning bathroom that handles all uses, and that was all on the first floor! Yes, there was a set of stairs that Kallen saw which undoubtedly meant that there was another level to the luxury.

As Tamaki came through the door he let out a low whistle of appreciation as he took in the sight. "I gotta say, you sure got some good tastes here Zero."

"Yeah," Ohgi agreed with the group's other red-head. He then turned and looked at Zero. "Mind if I ask how you came by this Zero?"

"I borrowed it from a rather libertine nobleman who indulges my requests," Zero answered them.

"You asked for it?" Ohgi said in disbelief. "Just like that?"

"Relax," Zero assured him from behind the mask. "No strings attached."

"I must say," Kallen finally found her tongue, "nobody would ever expect us to be in something like this."

"Check it out," Yoshida said from the stairway. "It's even got a second story."

"It's even got a T.V.," Minami relayed the information as he plopped down on the couch and pressed the remote on the table.

Kallen turned and looked at the T.V. as Minami turned it on. A female reporter with dark hair and wearing a crisp business suit was standing in front of the camera with a large, rectangular building in the background behind her. Kallen recognized that building immediately.

"I'm standing here," the woman on the television began, "in front of the Lake Kawaguchi tourist hotel and Convention Center, which has now been taken over by terrorists."

_That's where Shirley said that she, Milly, and Nina were going,_ Kallen realized. _I hope they're alright. I pray that it was taken over before they could get there._

"The perpetrators behind this hotel-jacking," the reporter continued on, "have now been identified as the now-defunct Japanese Liberation Front. The leader of the group of terrorists here is Lieutenant Colonel Kusakabe of the Japanese Liberation Front. It is believed that the hotel-jackers are using worldwide interest in the Sakuradite Allocation Conference that was taking place here at the Kawaguchi Convention Center.

"The terrorists have taken hostages," the female reporter continued to do her job. "It has been reported that all of the tourists and members of the Conference taking place have been taken by the hotel-jackers as hostages. The perpetrators sent out this video," the screen's picture swapped to a brief video that showed a group of people sitting on the ground and herded closely together in what looked like a storage room. "In this video you can clearly see Chairmen James, as well as some students." The video then settled on a group of familiar faces to Kallen.

"No," the red-haired woman gasped. "From the Student Council." Indeed, the camera showed her the faces of a determined Milly, a worried Shirley, and an utterly-terrified Nina. _Why did it have to be now of all times?_ she cursed whatever deity allowed this to happen.

"So the J.L.F. made their move huh?" Sugiyama said from the couch.

"They're easily the biggest anti-Britannian group there is," Ohgi informed everyone as if they didn't already know it. "And now their pride is hurt."

"Because of us?" Yoshida asked.

"Who knows," Ohgi answered.

"Ya know I knida feel bad for 'em," Tamaki spoke up. "They're all just gonna end up dead now."

Kallen tuned out everything after Tamaki's blunt summarization of what was going to happen. She didn't bother to listen to the reporter's description of Sakuradite and its role in world power, she already knew that from her father. _Damn it! _she silently cursed. _Why did they have to go _this_ weekend of all times?_ Shirley had invited her yesterday, but Kallen had been forced to turn her down. Kallen's fists clenched in anger directed at that bastard Kusakabe. _They did nothing to you,_ she silently seethed in rage. _They're innocent in all this._

"…there Kallen?" Tamaki's voice reached through to her. "Hello? Anyone home?"

"I'm here," she snapped at him. "It's nothing," she tried to assure everyone when she saw all the worried looks directed towards her.

"Did you recognize someone Kallen?" Zero asked her from the couch he was sitting on.

"It's nothing," she tried to reiterate to them all, not believing her statement herself.

"Very well," Zero's mask nodded to her. Their masked leader then stood up and addressed the entirety of the group. "I will leave the unpacking to all of you. There are many things that need to be taken care of. And what I promised you," he directed towards Ohgi and Kallen, "are in some of the boxes."

"Thanks Zero," Ohgi bowed to the masked man.

Ohgi and Kallen had agreed not to tell the rest of the resistance cell about Zero's mysterious 'Geass' power because the two of them didn't think for a minute that anyone would believe their story unless they saw it with their own eyes. Kallen knew she didn't.

"I appreciate it Zero," Kallen also thanked the masked man.

"I will continue monitoring the situation we just saw arise at Kawaguchi," Zero informed them all.

The entire group nodded to Zero and then went about their individual tasks of unpacking and arranging the contents of all the boxes.

Kallen was unpacking a large, green plush pillow thirty minutes later when she heard something from the small, portable television set that Zero was intently observing. She turned toward the screen and saw a middle-aged man with a familiar shade of orange hair being interviewed by a reporter.

"Shirley was just sightseeing," the man said into the microphone held up to him. "I want to know if my daughter is okay!"

_That must be Shirley's father,_ the Knightmare Ace of the Kozuki group thought as the man continued on the television. _He must be so worried about her._

"Are you worried Kallen?" Zero apparently noticed that she'd been staring at the screen. "Those students on the video are your friends, aren't they?"

"They are," she didn't bother to try and deny it or even question how it was that he knew about her personal life. With his Geass, anything is possible. "What do you think will happen to those hostages?"

"Eventually," he answered as he muted the television that he was watching, "there will be no reason to keep those Britannians alive."

"Yeah," Kallen responded to his assessment slowly, "you're probably right." She then felt a burning desire to ask a particular question. "Who was that woman with you the other day? You know, the perverted one dressed like you." Kallen still hadn't forgiven that woman, C.C. was her name, for making her act like that in front of Zero.

"Ah," her leader answered slowly. "All you need to know is that she is a close friend and someone that I trust with my life. For now, she is the only person who knows my identity underneath my mask, and it must stay that way for the time being. I promise that I will show myself to you once we have achieved enough."

"I understand," she acknowledged. _She must have helped create Zero if she knows who he really is under that mask._

"Hey Zero," Ohgi came walking up to the two of them while he was carrying a box. "I found these upstairs. Do you want me to pass 'em out to everyone?"

"What are they?" Kallen asked the older Japanese man.

"Uniforms," Zero informed them both.

"I mean," Ohgi began, "as far as gear goes it looks pretty hip. But we're just a resistance group."

"Wrong," the masked man stated firmly. We are no longer merely a simple resistance group."

"Then just what are we?" Ohgi asked the masked revolutionary.

"What we are trying to be," Zero began slowly. "No. What we _will _become, is Knights for Justice!"

"What do you mean Zero?" Kallen asked her leader, curious about what their leader had planned for them.

"We will protect the innocent," Zero told them. "And we will demonstrate that to the whole world tonight, when we rescue the hostages held by the J.L.F."

Kallen's eyes were wide in anticipation as Zero began to explain what they would all be doing tonight, while the whole world watched them.

* * *

**A/N: **Kawaguchi is about to begin! Thanks to all of my loyal readers for staying with the story so far.

All I can say about the delay is that there have been a few personal problems that have kinda forced me away from writing for a good bit.

Depending on a couple of POV's, Kawaguchi may only be one more chapter, or possibly two. I doubt that I'll have another update for a few weeks. So much is going to be happening that I can't really tell you with any firm guarantee that the next chapter will be out next week or not. I will have another update, rest assured. But you all of you readers may rejoice! There will be some Earl of Pudding madness coming up, and I can't wait to write it. I can't really call it his debut in my story, seeing as how he actually had a line back in my Chapter Three. However, I will do my best to ensure some classic Lloyd gets in, I just absolutely love the whole mad-scientist vibe you get from that crazy guy.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It's a little longer than my average length, but not by much. And I didn't lie to you guys last time. These POV's were all critical and crucial to future changes and events, in particular, Euphy's POV (but I bet you all already knew that didn't you?). My lips are sealed about my eventual plans, so don't bother trying to ask, I won't tell.

Next on my agenda is to thank all of you reviewers. There really is just too many for me to single out you all. Each review is key and helps me develop as a writer. I appreciate all you all do for me. Even if it's just a simple "good story" each review helps out tremendously. While I would like for the reviews to actually tell me what, in particular, made you like my story, I still appreciate that you took time out of your day (even if it's only a few seconds) to say that you liked my story. I just take those short reviews and tell myself that my chapter/story was so good that it left them speechless and the reviewers weren't able to single out any one thing that they loved.

I'm right aren't I?

Right?

Right?

It's not that it was just a mediocre story/chapter that was just good. Right? Because that would make me a sad panda.

I think that I should go ahead and tell you guys this, but my beta nearly smacked me upside the head when he read the first few lines of Lelouch's POV. I give credit for those lines origins towards one of my favorite childhood television shows, _Pinky and the Brain._ If you can't guess which one played Pinky and which one played Brain in that then just go to Youtube. It has to be the most amusing theme-song ever written.

Ah, I also have another announcement. I have plans to begin a Naruto fanfic after I finish Part 3. I haven't really decided on a title just yet, but I do have a premise and a muse to go off of. The premise is this: Minato survives the Kyuubi assault, and Hiruzen is the one who uses the Shinigami seal to seal away the Kyuubi in Naruto. Kushina still died, sadly. Pairings are still up in the air, but a few have been decided. It won't just skip from the Kyuubi attack straight to Naruto's graduation either. No, there will be around eleven or so chapters where Minato is the main character before Naruto graduates as a genin where Minato will be doing many, many things. There won't just be a blank twelve years where it was the same as in canon. It will truly be my own story. The planned name is _The World Under the Fourth._ If any of you can think of a better name then PM me. My beta and I will decide on the name when I decide to begin to publish it.

I guess I can give you all a small taste as to the end of the Kyuubi assault that is Chapter One in my story. Here it is.

* * *

Minato stared at the sight before him. He and Kushina had jumped in front of Kyuubi's exceedingly large talon to save Naruto, but Sandaime had used a quick Kawarimi and taken the blow for him.

"I told you," Hiruzen said to Minato, while Sandaime's own Shiki Fuin was active, "that if you forced me out of retirement that I would never forgive you Minato-kun."

"But Sandaime-sama, it's my responsibility!" Minato argued.

"No, it isn't," Hiruzen told him. "I am old, far too old to go back to being Hokage. Your responsibility is to live on. You are to live on, and become the father and Hokage that you were meant to be. I have faith that you will lead Konoha on, into another age. If we are lucky, then you may actually be the one to save the world, just like Jiraiya-kun said you could be."

"Minato-kun," Kushina called over to the love of her life while Kyuubi's talon protruded from her stomach.

"Yes, Kushina," Minato answered her with tears staining his eyes at the sight. _Why must she go._

"Take care of Naruto-kun," Kushina said with a tired smile. "Be a good father. Don't let Naruto grow up alone. Do you remember what I told you that Mito-sama told me about being the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki?"

"I do," Minato told his wife.

"It is possible for a jinchuuriki to have a good life," Kushina recited. "You just have to fill the vessel with love. If you can do that, then the jinchuuriki may have a good life. You have to do that now. Don't let Naruto-kun have the normal jinchuuriki life. Please don't let our son grow up alone. Let our son become a great man."

"I will," Minato answered his love, tears threatening to fall from his face. "I promise that our son will be loved. I won't let this chance go to waste. Thank you, Sandaime-sama, for allowing me to raise my son."

"Naruto," Kushina said to her still quiet son, "you are the sun of my life. Beware of Jiraiya, he's nothing but a bad influence. Be kind to your father, I know that he may not always be the best, but know that he loves you with all of his heart. I need you to promise me something. I want you to promise me that you'll always stay just who you are, never change for anyone." At this, the little blonde baby on the sealing alter yawned and let out a single giggle. "Grow up and find someone to love, just like your father and I did. Make sure that you eat your vegetables, don't just eat ramen like your father over there. You know, he wouldn't have ever gotten away from it if I hadn't forced him to actually try something else on our first date. I told him, 'If you order ramen one more time then I'll force-feed you one of those kunai that you're so proud of.'" Kushina let out a dry chuckle. "Your father really will be lost without me. I want you to help keep him straight, we all know that Jiraiya won't. Naruto-kun, I love you more than life itself. If you don't remember anything else, just know that."

Minato couldn't fight it anymore, tears fell from his chin like raindrops. "I love you, Kushina."

"And I love you, Minato, dattebane," she said weakly as she smiled, blood dripping from her mouth.

Gerotora then took the seal's key and disappeared back to Mount Myoboku.

Hiruzen then looked back to Minato, his Shiki Fuin looming over him, ready to finish the seal. "Are you ready to face the world as the Yondaime Hokage, Minato-kun?"

Minato wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his 'Fourth Hokage' cloak and stared at Hiruzen Sarutobi with a fierce fire burning in his eyes. He spoke up, determination coating his words, "The world isn't ready for me!"

Hiruzen smiled weakly at his successor. "I'm glad I can leave Konoha in your hands Minato-kun. I only wish that I would be able to join Biwako, but alas, the life of a shinobi is that of sacrifice."

Minato walked over to his love and kissed her, one last time. "You will get to see your son, I promise. A lifetime with a father is nothing compared to just five minutes with a mother. I love you, my hot-blooded habanero."

Hiruzen then called out from behind the red-haired woman, "Fuin!"

As the seal was finished, Kushina's indigo eyes found Minato's cerulean ones, and Kushina Uzumaki Namikaze spoke her last words. "And I love you too, my little yellow loser."


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

* * *

Suzaku stared across the bridge and his gaze never left the Kawaguchi Hotel and Convention Center.

There, inside that building, his friends from the Student Council and other innocents had been taken hostage by his own kind.

_Kusakabe,_ he seethed silently with clenched fists. _All you're doing is proving what the Britannians think that you are. Why can't you people understand that?_

"Suzaku," Cecile's motherly voice came to him. "Are you okay?"

The Japanese youth took a deep breath to help steady himself. _That's not what I should worry about right now,_ he reminded himself. "I'll be okay," he assured the woman he saw as an older sister.

"That's good to hear," she said. "You just seemed a little on edge, so I thought I should just make sure."

"Nerves, I guess," he told her.

"You know you can tell me whatever gets to you," Cecile reminded him. "I'm always here to help."

Suzaku's hands relaxed and his eyes softened. "Thanks Miss Cecile." He then tore his steady gaze away from where his friends were in danger; doing his best to reign himself back in. _I can't help unless I'm ordered to,_ he told himself. _I must have faith that the structure will save them._

The Japanese Warrant Officer then turned away from his friends and walked over to the A.S.E.E.C.'s mobile base and stood next to Cecile.

"How are you doing?" the blue-haired woman asked of him.

"I'm ready to go anytime," he responded.

"I know that," she informed Suzaku. "By the way, do you happen to know where Lloyd went? He promised to try my ham, turkey, and wasabi-paste sandwich this morning, but he's been curiously missing for a few hours."

_Why would you do that to yourself Lloyd?_ Suzaku wondered. "When did he promise you that?"

"Let's see," Cecile pondered for a moment. "It was about four hours ago. I gave him the choice between that, or this lovely recipe I came up with that involves strawberries, motor oil, and fried pickles."

Suzaku blanched at that. _Strawberries and fried pickles, okay. But _motor oil_? You know what; I don't even want to know. _"Maybe he's trying to see if we can help with the operation?" he offered with a very strained smile. He had an idea where Lloyd was alright. As _far_ away from Cecile's cooking as possible. _Forget Knightmares and tanks, _he thought. _ Cecile's cooking is, by far, the most dangerous weapon on the planet._

"That makes sense," she smiled back. "Although it is uncommonly particular for him to take the initiative on something like that."

"Yoohooo!" Lloyd's voice called to the two of them. "How's my favorite deviceor doing on this marvelous day?"

"Good," Suzaku replied simply as his boss arrived. He'd learned long ago that Lloyd is a true sociopath. The eccentric genius was an almost unparalleled mind, but Lloyd Asplund was lacking a single shred of compassion for anything non-Lancelot.

"There you are Lloyd!" Cecile noticed his approach. "I've got your lunch packed away over here." She then reached down and pulled a plastic bag from seemingly nowhere, and in it sat something that should've been locked away in a twenty-foot thick titanium walled safe four-hundred feet below ground. Cecile's cooking.

Cold sweat began to form on Lloyd's forehead as Cecile held out her death-in-a-bun sandwich. "I-It's fine, really," the white-haired man almost pleaded.

"I made it for you especially," the walking kitchen-hazard insisted.

"But I'm not that hungry," the A.S.E.E.C.'s head tried again.

"If you don't eat," Cecile scolded the eccentric genius, "you'll just get hungry later. And I don't want you getting crabby because of an empty stomach."

"Oh! I just remembered!" Lloyd said rather loudly. "I ate lunch with the Viceroy an hour ago."

"Really?" Cecile sounded skeptical. "What did you have?"

"A wonderful combination of delicacies was available for me," Lloyd rambled. "I ate a nicely cooked steak with broccoli and a twenty-year-old French wine."

"How was the pork cooked?" Cecile probed, hoping to catch her boss in his lie.

"It was steak," Lloyd corrected her. "And medium-well. Cornelia likes a little blood in her meat, but not much."

Suzaku came very close to applauding Lloyd's ingenuity. If there was anything to be admired about a man like the Lancelot's designer, then it was his ability to almost always weasel away from getting stuck with eating Cecile's food. _That must be why he's so thin,_ Suzaku thought.

Cecile's depressed pout was so heartbreaking that Suzaku almost reached for the food just to get her to smile again. Almost.

Instead he said, "I think that George said that he forgot his lunch before we left.

The blue-haired scientist immediately brightened back up. "I'll be right back then," she answered. She then went off to find her next victim.

"You're really cruel, you know that Suzaku?" Lloyd told him after Cecile had gotten out of earshot.

"How?"

"What did poor George ever do to you to deserve such a fate?" Lloyd began to rant, like always. "You do understand just how difficult it is to find good help, don't you? I swear, sometimes it's like you just don't seem to care at all about poor Lancelot's health at all. Now George may not be as irreplaceable as me of course, but I can't handle everything myself if I want to make sure Prince Schneizel is happy and continues paying our budget. After all, we can't make Lancelot the way he is meant to be made without plenty of funds to throw around. Where is George, by the way?"

"Lloyd," Suzaku deadpanned, "do you even know what George does?"

"Why should I? All he's doing is creating my designs for me. It's not like he's the one coming up with Lancelot's systems."

Suzaku let out a deep breath. "George left to return back to the mobile command center an hour ago. So I doubt that Cecile will find him anytime soon."

(Meanwhile, Suzaku had drastically underestimated Cecile's determination when it came to her cooking. A random lab techie was cursing Suzaku Kururugi and Lloyd Asplund to the deepest pits of Hell for making him eat Cecile's cooking. He would later come down with a horrible case of indigestion, diarrhea, and another disease that doctor's would later name as 'Croomy's Cooking")

Cecile returned a few minutes later with a beaming smile on her face. (Suzaku said a silent prayer in remembrance of George and all that he'd done to help him.) Lloyd was sitting on a hill that sloped down into the lakeshore, and Suzaku was standing behind him, stiff as a soldier at attention.

"Is there anything we can do the help with the rescue operation?" Suzaku asked his boss.

"I've already asked them," Lloyd answered tiredly, "and they said we're an irregular unit and don't acknowledge our chain of command. Besides…"

"It's too risky to entrust the matter to an Eleven, right?" Suzaku finished.

"Yes. I'm fairly certain that you're aware that Princess Cornelia is very discriminatory about Britannians and Numbers," Lloyd replied back to his divisions only pilot.

"So the Japanese still aren't being accepted enough into your structure," Suzaku stated. It didn't need to be a question.

"If that were true," Cecile pointed out, "then what's the point of even having an Honorary system?" Her question hung in the air for a brief moment.

Lloyd then piped up after throwing another rock into the lake's waters, "You really need to open your eyes a bit my darling Cecile."

"What do you mean?" Cecile said indignantly.

"It's all about appearances," the eccentric genius continued his lecture. "That's how the game of politics is played. It doesn't matter if it's true or not. If it seems like a possibility for the Elevens to achieve Britannian citizenry status and hopefully get away from the status as being an 'Eleven,' then it keeps the masses in line. A 'glimmer of hope,' if you will. This 'hope' lets the 'Elevens' think that becoming Honorary Britannians will solve all their problems, even though the reality is far from the truth.

Cecile appeared deep in thought as Lloyd finished his lesson on politics.

Suzaku had remained silent throughout Lloyd's lecture to Cecile because the Japanese pilot knew that the white-haired man spoke the truth. _But I'm going to change all that,_ he vowed to himself once more. _I swore to myself that I would peaceably change Britannia's rule by showing them that they're wrong with their own system. And then a peaceful change in attitude can come about._

Lloyd stood up from the grassy hill and stretched himself out. "Come," he said to the still-stunned Cecile. "Let's go make sure dear Lancelot isn't feeling lonely now. I can't have him feeling left out now can I?" The head of the A.S.E.E.C. then pushed his companion over into the mobile transport where all of the equipment for running the Z-01 Lancelot's systems was.

Suzaku sat down on the grassy hill and grabbed a rock that lied on the hillside. It wasn't an overly large stone, but it was a little bit smaller than his palm. The rock was smooth and a light-grey in color.

The Japanese youth gripped the rock tightly and cocked his arm to the side. He then whipped his arm around and flung his wrist, letting the rock fly towards the lake. The rock hit the water's surface and skipped four times before sinking underneath the waves.

Suzaku closed his eyes and allowed himself to remember the last time his father had brought Lelouch, Nunnally, and him to Lake Kawaguchi seven years ago. It was a happy time for all then. Lelouch and Suzaku had played around the water's edge and tried to describe the utter beauty of the scene to Nunnally, who'd had a wonderful smile on her face. Even the usually stoic Genbu Kururugi had a smile on his face. But then Suzaku saw a sight that had plagued his dreams ever since that fateful day over seven years ago.

Suzaku shook his head vigorously in an attempt to rid his mind of that picture. That image haunted him enough during the night. He couldn't allow it to start affecting him when there were other things that needed to be done.

He forced himself to look upwards, into the sky. A few hours must've passed without him knowing, for the sun was beginning to set in the west.

"Suzaku," Cecile's voice called to him. "Can you give us a hand? We've got some things to do in the cockpit and Lloyd wants to make sure that you're calibrated into the system's adjustments."

"Coming!" he answered back. Suzaku then glanced back at the Kawaguchi hotel. _I must have faith,_ he reminded himself. _I can't let my emotions ever rule over me again. The last time I did…_ his thoughts trailed off, unwilling to allow himself to finish that thought and relive the revolting moment again.

The brown-haired Japanese Knightmare pilot then turned away from his friend's plight once more and walked over to help out Cecile and Lloyd.

"What do I need to do?" he asked the woman of the A.S.E.E.C..

"I need you to begin the start-up systems," Cecile told him, "and run a systems check. After that, we're going to install the V.A.R.I.S. targeting systems and we need you to ensure that they're properly adjusted to how you pilot."

"Roger that," he acknowledged his responsibilities. Suzaku then sat in the Lancelot's cockpit chair and followed Cecile and Lloyd's instruction for over another hour before they reached a brief lull while a new adjustment was being uploaded into the Lancelot's computer systems that was meant to up the energy output from the Yggdrasil Drive.

Cecile asked while typing away on her computer pad, "Those students on the tape were friends of yours from school, aren't they? They're still negotiating, so let's not give up hope yet."

"I have faith in the system," the pilot answered her. "I prefer the logic of systems to individualist emotions."

Lancelot's optical systems then picked up movement from atop the hotel's roof, and Suzaku's radio blared, "Situation changing!"

"Miss Cecile," he said, eyes focusing in on the screen in front of him. He then had the cameras focus in on the rooftop movement.

"Huh?" Cecile noticed from behind him.

"That's –" the green-eyed youth began with wide eyes as the picture enlarged, showing a tied up man standing on the roof's edge with another man directly behind him.

"What are they going to do to him?" Cecile asked with distress rising in her voice.

"Oh, no," Suzaku realized. "Don't do it," he said as the J.L.F. member approached the hostage, hoping that his countrymen weren't going to do what he thought they were.

It was all for naught.

The J.L.F. member pushed the hostage off the roof and as the hostage fell Suzaku screamed out, "NOOOOOO!"

Suzaku's head dropped and his wide eyes stared at his shaking palms.

_Another life I couldn't save,_ he told himself.

"Are you okay Suzaku?" Cecile asked him with concern layered in her tone.

The brown-haired Japanese youth was about to answer her and tell her that he would be fine, but his radio chatter calmed down and a single declaration was heard. "Zero has been sighted!"

The silence that descended upon the Britannian military camp was deafening.

_Why are you here Zero?_ Suzaku calmly wondered, his mind at rest for the distraction. _Could what you have told me that night actually be true?_

* * *

Minami and Sugiyama, dressed in their respective Black Knight uniforms with their reflective glass visors pulled over their eyes, returned after ten minutes of scouting together.

"It's just as you thought Zero," Minami spoke up to relay their gathered information. "Cornelia's forces have been repelled in every avenue. They've also blocked off any possible escape route that the J.L.F. could take."

"Those fools," Lelouch spat through his mask.

"What do you mean?" Ohgi asked him.

"Kusakabe has doomed his men to death," the masked prince replied morbidly. "I can only guess why he even attempted such a farce as taking those hostages."

"Why's that?" Inoue asked.

"Wouldn't the Sakuradite Conference have been the perfect time to do what he's doing though?" Kallen clarified the question further.

"That is precisely why it is the _worst _possible time," Lelouch answered them calmly. "While world interest may not be a bad thing to have usually, in this case Kusakabe's actions are making it seem that all of the resistance are little more than simple terrorists. And now the world thinks the J.L.F. to be inhuman barbarians."

"But doesn't taking hostages give you a kind of leverage to get away from the battle with what you wanted?" Sugiyama inquired.

"What does it matter?" Tamaki blurted. "They're all just a bunch of stuck-up Brits. They're the ones who destroyed our Japan and made us into 'Elevens' anyways."

"Then tell me Tamaki," Lelouch spoke through Zero's mask, "why are you friends with Kallen?"

"Because she's my bud!" the hot-head quickly defended.

"But she is half-Britannian," the dark-haired revolutionist pointed out shrewdly. "And you are aware of this. If what you just said was completely true, then why doesn't she treat you like the filth you say the Britannians do?"

Tamaki was dumbfounded at that and tried to answer Lelouch's point, but wasn't able to. Kallen, on the other hand, was absolutely beaming.

"He's right Tamaki," Kallen said loud enough for everyone in the group to hear. "I happen to know some of those hostages personally." At this, everyone's ears in the Black Knights, minus Lelouch, were perked. "One of them is more afraid of the Japanese than anything, but she's becoming good friends with Suzaku Kururugi. Another is just an overall kind person. I hung out with her one afternoon, and she gave this starving Japanese child clothes and food out of her own money. The last one is a perverted she-witch who loves gossip, but she's so much more. She cares really deeply for everyone under her on the Council and tirelessly works to make sure that everyone always has a smile on their face. So you have to understand Tamaki; that not every Britannian is like the Emperor or even Cornelia. They're all just people; like you and me."

_I couldn't have said it better myself,_ the prince thought fondly as Kallen finished her monologue.

Ohgi walked over and gave Kallen an affectionate pat on the back. "You're right Kallen."

"We need to move," Lelouch told them all, effectively ending the touching moment of everyone realizing Britannians' humanity. He then turned towards Minami and asked, "Where are the news vans stationed?"

"About half-a-mile outside the military," Minami answered him.

"Good," Lelouch nodded with his mask. He then turned around and allowed his cape to flap behind him. "I will go procure us a way into the Kawaguchi hotel. Await my signal and then we move."

"Very well," Ohgi acknowledged his instructions. "We'll be right here until you need us."

_I know you will,_ the masked youth thought softly.

Lelouch then trudged through the shadows of the night as a phantom would. His boots never made a sound as they fell upon the wet grass beneath his feet.

A large news van came into his view after a few moments of traversing in the darkness. The Black King emerged from the shadows as a ghost would and noticed the sign on the van that showed its number. It was van number three. The same one he stole last time.

"Z-Zero!" the lone man stationed at the van sputtered in shock. "What-what are you doing here?"

Lelouch couldn't help but grow a venomous smirk as the reflective glass panel covering his left eye slid open. He then ordered the nameless man, "You will ignore myself and my followers when they arrive. You will also give me this van, everything within, and the keys to use them all."

"Very well," the man accepted his new orders as his will was replaced and the faint red-lines circled his brown irises. The news crewman then began loading the van with everything Zero had instructed him with.

Lelouch then took out his phone and sent the signal for Ohgi and the rest of the Black Knights to come to his location. They arrived after five minutes of patiently waiting by the prince.

Lelouch threw the van's keys to Kallen, who caught them in the air and then studied them curiously. "What are these for?" she asked.

"We will now be heading towards the Lake Kawaguchi hotel," he informed them all. "Once there, do not panic. I have something that will stay the Viceroy's hands and will make her let us pass, unharmed."

"Must be something pretty big," Tamaki rambled.

Ohgi and Kallen briefly looked at each other and then looked away with unreadable expressions on their faces.

_They must think I'll use my Geass on Cornelia,_ Lelouch figured from behind Zero's guise.

"By the way Zero," the Knightmare Ace of the Black Knights piped up. "What were the stakes of my duel with Guilford, if you don't mind my asking?"

"That is a question better saved for the moment," the prince told the crimson-haired woman. "Right now, we have innocents to protect."

"He's right," Ohgi agreed with him as the Japanese man laid a hand on Kallen's shoulder gently. "We need to do our jobs right now. You can ask him questions later. There are more important things to worry about right now."

"Fine," the blue-eyed beauty grumbled. She and all of the rest of the initial Black Knights then climbed into the news van.

Lelouch clambered atop the news van and stood next to the satellite receiver. A sense of nostalgia swan through him as he tapped his boot's heel on the van twice. _Just like with Jeremiah when we saved Suzaku,_ he thought as the van advanced towards the Britannian military front.

They passed the outer perimeter without incident, just as they did last time. As they came to the bridge connecting the land with the Kawaguchi hotel, three customized Gloucesters came to a screeching halt in front of them, each of them holding a golden lance.

The center Knightmare had elongated, exaggerated horns that extended far beyond the others, signifying Cornelia's personal Gloucester. This Knightmare's cockpit block then opened up with a large hiss and Cornelia herself stood up from the confines of her Knightmare.

"Well, well," the princess began. "We meet again Zero. Are you a member of the Japan Liberation Front? Or perhaps you intend to help us? Regardless, our priorities take concern over yours at the moment." She then drew her rifle that eerily resembled a rapier and fiercely declared, "For the death of my half-brother Clovis, I shall take my revenge right here!"

_The same monologue,_ the masked man pondered. _And I thought that –_ he noticed that her finger was nowhere near the trigger on her rifle. _So she doesn't want to kill me,_ he realized. _She's expecting me to already know about Euphemia being a hostage, or she wishes me alive so she can question me herself. Perhaps both. But one thing is quite evidently clear to me; she has no intention of slaying Zero now._

"Cornelia," Lelouch then called across the divide between them. "Which would you choose? Clovis, who is dead? Or Euphemia, who is alive?"

The absolute lack of shock on the purple-haired princess told Lelouch everything he needed to know. The hotel had not yet been obliterated to a smoldering pile of rubble, so Euphy had to have been taken as a hostage. So that meant that Cornelia had to have expected Zero to come along and, possibly, save her sister in a way that she could not. After all, Zero is apparently very close with Lelouch and Nunnally, and they would be devastated if sweet little Euphy would be killed when Zero could save her.

"It is within both my power and my will to save Euphemia for you," he stated.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" the Second Princess exclaimed, but anyone who knew her could tell that she was just putting up a front for the uninformed around them.

Lelouch firmly declared, "I said that I am able to rescue yours and Lelouch's sister!"

Cornelia kept her weapon aimed at Zero's mask, but her brother could tell that it was a forced motion. Her mind wasn't in the act. It was a show to make everyone else believe that she was shocked and was considering his offer of help. But Lelouch knew that the Viceroy had decided the moment that he'd shown up.

The Second Princes then slowly lowered her rifle and an audible gasp came from the military surrounding them. "Very well," she whispered. "I shall accept your assistance Zero." Cornelia then turned to a random soldier to her left and ordered, "Inform the J.L.F. of Zero. We shall allow him by."

"Yes, Viceroy!" the soldier acknowledged with a crisp salute. He then ran off and left Zero and Cornelia alone in their discussion.

"I figured that you'd show up here sooner or later," Cornelia broke the silence.

Lelouch elected to simply remain silent whilst his sister spoke in order to prevent himself from dropping any more hints to her. He was fairly certain that Euphemia had already pieced it together and wouldn't tell Cornelia without his permission. Lelouch couldn't afford to let Cornelia find him just yet. It was still far too soon.

"You're a dangerous man," the Viceroy continued conversationally. "You killed my half-brother, and that alone makes you the most wanted man in Britannia and all of her colonies. That status will also gain you many allies in the world, both from within and outside of Britannia. However," she turned serious and stared deeply into Zero's mask. "If you allow my _sisters_ to come to any harm then no force in the world will be able to spare you from my wrath."

The fact that she used the plural was not lost on Lelouch. Cornelia was subtly hinting about him and Nunnally as well. _This could pose a problem if I don't handle it sooner,_ he plotted. _I need to start growing the doubt immediately. If she finds us too soon, everything will go wrong._

"Word has been sent Viceroy!" a voice informed everyone present.

"Very well," she accepted. Cornelia then moved her Gloucester in order to create a path for the van to cross the bridge. "You may pass Zero," she said in finality.

The heel of his boot tapped twice once more and the van slowly drove forward.

As he passed the princess, he said simply, "Lelouch sends his regards to his sisters."

Cornelia's sharp gasp was heard as the news van housing the Black Knights began to cross the bridge.

Lelouch stared from behind his mask at the iron gate that was the last obstacle between him and rescuing all those whom he cared about within the hotel, almost willing it to let him pass. The gate slid open and a smile graced his face.

_Excellent,_ he thought once more. _All the operation's preliminary conditions have been met again. Now to deal with Kusakabe._

* * *

"What do you think is happening?" Cecile asked Suzaku as the Viceroy allowed Zero to pass.

"I don't know," the Japanese Knightmare pilot answered truthfully. _But I do have an idea. Is it really possible that – _

"Wonderful!" Lloyd's excited voice came from below them. "I want to thank you for that lovely order." The Lancelot's designer then turned toward the pilot and blue-haired scientist and said with an ecstatic cackle, "You've got the green light Lancelot! You've got orders to charge right at that linear cannon in the tunnel."

"Wait a minute," Cecile said, frustration evident. "You mean they're going to use him as a distraction to make an opening for them?"

"Yep!" Lloyd jittered on. "Seems like they're going to use the confusion to send in the Royal Guard."

"Seems like!" Cecile's voice began to rise.

Suzaku interrupted her before the protective woman could go on another tirade about Lloyd's utter lack of compassion again. "Miss Cecile!" She quieted down and brought her light-blue eyes to meet his green gaze. "I'm ready," he stated firmly. "If Lancelot and I are needed, and we're able to give the hostages an opportunity to be saved, then I'll do it. Even if it means being a decoy."

Cecile looked as if she wanted to protest further, but she didn't speak out. "Fine," she sighed in defeat. "I'll finish the preparations." The blue-haired woman then climbed down and logged in on her computer.

Lloyd, Cecile, and the rest of the A.S.E.E.C. (minus George) spent the next fifteen minutes beginning the start-up sequence for the Lancelot. During this time, Suzaku handled his responsibilities as Lancelot's pilot and made sure that he was completely familiar with every function, whether major or minor, of the White Knightmare.

Suzaku removed the data charger from the Lancelot's key port and placed the starting key into his Knightmare. He then typed in his passcode and the beginning screen appeared. There on the screen, beneath the Knightmare's name, was the Lancelot's creed: "Marching Ever Onwards To Tomorrow."

Lancelot buzzed and whirred to life underneath him, and Suzaku's radio then began his briefing.

"Warrant Officer Kururugi," he was told by Cecile, "here is a guideline for your mission." A layout of the Kawaguchi hotel appeared on his main screen and reacted accordingly to his briefing. "According to Prime Search, the hostages are believed to be on the hotel's middle floor, and are locked in a food storage room. Advanced prototype weapon Z-01 Lancelot will use the utilities tunnel to move under the hotel. Once on sight you will destroy the foundation block and submerge the building. The area with the hostages should hold out for eight minutes. Hostage rescue and mop-up of the terrorists will be handled by other units. You will be using the V.A.R.I.S. to destroy the foundation. Set the Impact Rail to Anti-Material Level Three."

"The only variable in this," Lloyd said over the radio as Lancelot was guided over the hole into the utilities tunnel, "is that pesky linear cannon in the tunnel. Space is tight in there. The Lancelot will only have a forty-seven point eight percent evasion rate."

"Are we really going through with this?" Cecile asked through the radio.

"Yep," Lloyd calmly confirmed. "Make sure you both pull out of there before it's too late. Lancelot might be wrecked, that'd be unacceptable."

"Before it's too late?" Suzaku echoed.

Lloyd let out an amused sound that told him what the genius had meant.

"Understood sir," Suzaku relayed as the Lancelot began to be lowered into the tunnel.

The Knightmare's feet touched the tunnel's floor and the harkens retreated into their launchers. Suzaku then poised himself like a track sprinter and intently stared down the tunnel's length.

"Twelve minutes to operation start," Cecile informed him. "Commencing countdown."

A timer appeared on Suzaku's screen and began to tick down until the time he could try to save his friends.

* * *

Euphemia stared amongst all the hostages taken by the terrorists. She saw a terrified young girl being comforted by two blonde and orange-haired young women, they must've been the scared girl's friends. Next to Euphy were her personal guard detail who'd been assigned to protect her by Cornelia, each one successfully blending in with the rest of the hostages.

About twenty minutes ago, the terrorists had chosen a random hostage and escorted him out of the room, alone. Euphy despised it, but she knew what had occurred. The J.L.F. had executed him as a warning to her sister that they meant business and were tired of not getting what they wanted.

_I need to get his name if I make it out of here,_ Euphemia thought about the murdered man. _His family deserves to know that he died protecting royalty._

She then felt the firm grip of her bodyguard's hand on her wrist. The guard then tapped in Morse Code, "_Are you feeling steady? STOP."_

Euphemia li Britannia then sent back. "_I am fine. I was just thinking of telling that man's family that he died protecting me. STOP."_

"_That is very considerate of you Sub-Viceroy. STOP."_

"_It's the least I can do. STOP."_

Her guard then removed her hand from Euphemia's wrist and the princess looked up to check if any of the terrorists in the room had noticed their silent conversation. The pink-haired woman nearly let out a sigh of relief that none of the hostage-guards had noticed anything.

The Third Princess began to ponder on her situation and took in details of her captors, just as she'd been instructed to. _There are four guards in here,_ she counted in her head. _They all have automatic rifles. Better suited for keeping a group of people in line. Those are German SCHNEISAL thirty-two twenties,_ she noted to herself. Euphemia's _very_ diverse education had given her an ability to pick out the make, model, and basic specs of most firearms. _They have a twenty-round magazine with a firing rate of one-hundred twenty-five bullets-per-minute._

Euphemia never took her eyes from the J.L.F. guarding the hostages as she began to recall what she'd been taught about hostage situations by her sister's first Knight, Andreas Darlton.

_First,_ she remembered, _if your captors don't know that you're royalty, only inform them as a last resort. Do not make them aware of just how much leverage they really possess. Have faith in the military to rescue you._

Euphy had the utmost faith in her sister, but she realized that they were running out of time. It wouldn't be very long before the terrorists came back for another sacrifice.

_If your captors either know, find out, or you inform them of your status of royalty, maintain your vigil. Do not allow them to get to you. You must never show fear to your captors. Fear will make them think that you are weak. Royalty is never weak._

_If you are forced to reveal yourself to the terrorists, you will be placed in a precarious position of power. They will be forced to take time to confirm your identity and royal status. Time that could be used to get you out of there. You will then immediately become the hostage representative to the leader of whatever group that has taken you hostage. Once there, you must maintain your dignity without angering your captors too much. If pushed too far, they may execute you as a message, even if it would result in the full military might of Britannia coming down on their heads. You can't help anyone if you're dead and bleeding on the floor._

_Once you are taken to the group's leader, you will more than likely be instructed to contact the head of the military that the group is at a standoff with. Do not attempt to do anything with this opportunity. That is what the terrorists will look for the first time. You are to only do as you are told by your captors. This will make them think you aren't necessarily an immediate threat._

Euphemia's lesson recalling was interrupted by a frightened whimper. She then looked in the direction of where the sound came from and saw that same trio of girls from earlier. The orange-haired girl had the smallest of their group wrapped in a tight embrace, as if she were shielding her friend from what was happening around them. The blonde of the three seemed familiar to Euphy, but she couldn't quite remember from where.

_Is that,_ she wondered, _Milly Ashford?_ Immediately bells were going off in the princess' mind. Euphy couldn't help but grow a faint smile and hid it behind her hand. _Now I'm certain that Zero will show up soon enough._

A new man opened the door into the hostages' makeshift prison. He was plain with hardened eyes and an overall military air about him. The new J.L.F. member walked in and whispered something to one of the other J.L.F. soldiers in the room.

Euphemia strained her ears in order to listen in on whatever news the new soldier was bringing, but all she heard was, "…Kusakabe is meeting with him in a few moments."

The Third Princess' mind was immediately swimming with all the possibilities of what this could actually be. There aren't many people who this Kusakabe was said to take an interest to. The file on the Lieutenant Colonel stated him to be quick to anger and very patriotic, but not diplomatic in any way. _I highly doubt that he'd meet with either of sister's Knights,_ Euphemia mused on Kusakabe. _The only person I can think of in Area Eleven right now that he'd willingly meet with would be…_ Euphy's magenta eyes widened as she realized just who the new arrival to the party was. _Zero!_

The Sub-Viceroy had to fight to maintain her composure and not draw attention right that very minute. She couldn't afford to reveal herself yet, regardless of how much she wanted to. Euphemia couldn't bring herself to believe that these soldiers would believe her unless one of the hostages was under duress and she offered herself up instead.

It was just that moment that the scared young girl who was near Milly looked up and rasped out, "An… Eleven."

The J.L.F. member's eyes flashed with rage as he growled out, "What was that?" He then twirled around and aimed his weapon at the terrified girl. "We're not called Elevens! We're Japanese dammit!" the soldier roared.

Milly quickly grabbed the frightened girl and wrapper her arms around the small one's head. The blonde pulled her friend closer to her and spoke back with a hint of annoyance at the man, "Yes, we're aware of that. Just lay off of her."

"Then correct her!" the man demanded.

"Fine!" the orange-haired girl spoke up with a courage that she'd been hiding. "We'll correct her!"

"How dare you speak to me like that!" the man growled. "You three! Come with me to the next room and I'll teach you a _real_ lesson." Euphemia recognized that man's tone quite easily and realized his intentions with the three young women.

She moved to stand and reveal herself right then, but her bodyguard grabbed her wrist and shook her head.

Once the man forcibly pulled the shrieking young girl to her feet, Euphemia li Britannia had seen enough. She had other places to be now anyways. Euphemia broke her bodyguards grip and stood up, glaring daggers at the offensive creature who was close to forcing himself on one of her childhood friends and two of Milly's friends.

Euphemia then demanded, "Stop it!"

"Who the hell are you?" the man growled out in response as he threw the frightened young lady to the floor.

"I demand you take me to your leader right _now_. Understand?" she spoke in a commanding voice. Lelouch had told her it was her 'Princess' voice.

"What?" the J.L.F. man shouted at her.

Euphemia didn't even bother looking at her pleading guard. She would ensure that Cornelia knew that this decision was made by the Sub-Viceroy of Area Eleven and Third Princess alone and that her elder sister wouldn't crack down on her detail for her own actions.

"You're addressing Euphemia li Britannia," the princess revealed to them all as she removed her false glasses. "The Third Princess of the Britannian Empire."

A collective gasp rang out from everyone in the room, whether they were hostage or soldier. Euphemia's eyes briefly flickered over to Milly and the blonde had a look of both admiration and gratitude in her ocean-blue eyes.

Euphemia then softened her voice and asked the terrified girl sprawled out on the ground, "Are you alright young lady? You haven't been hurt?"

The girl retreated into Milly's arms, then turned towards her and squeaked out, "No."

"Very well." Euphemia then faced the J.L.F. soldiers and spoke in her royal voice once more, "Take me to Lieutenant Colonel Kusakabe immediately. I have things to discuss with that man."

Two of the four soldiers were able to shake off their shock first. "Very well," one of them said. He then pointed at the beast and ordered, "Radio the Colonel and tell him about her." He then pointed to the other two in the room and said, "You and you will come with me to escort this _Princess_ to the next floor. I'll radio in some replacements right quick."

The man then spoke into his radio and requested three men to take over guarding the hostages. The replacements arrived after a few tense minutes of impatiently waiting by Euphy, who was ready to finally speak to Zero.

As the princess and her three escorts left the storage closet, Euphemia appeared the image of peace and serenity. However, on the inside, she was anxious, nervous, and beyond happy at finally being able to confront Zero.

_I wonder how tall he's gotten?_

* * *

**A/N: (Beat to Eminem's _Without Me_ playing in the** **background**)

Guess who's back.

Back again.

dripley's back.

Tell a friend.

Guess who's back. Guess who's back. Guess who's back. Guess who's back. Guess who's back.

I've created another chapter here for all of you, I hope you all can appreciate it like you all have done for the rest. I originally didn't intend on returning to Once More, with Feeling until around the end of June, but a fan (who know who you are *Cough, Cough* Sakura Neko-Chan) messaged me last week and reminded me of my fans out there eagerly awaiting my next update. So... here it is. That fan's message helped me to remember my drive on this story and I've cranked out two chapters in about five days worth of writing (or around twenty-five hours).

However, just because I have Kawaguchi finished, doesn't mean I'm going to just post it right at the same time. I want this chapter to seep into your minds and build up the suspense for the grand finale. I know, I'm just evil like that. *Warning: Evil, insane laugh coming* MUHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH! YOU ALL ARE SUBJECT TO THE WRITER'S WHIMS! AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO!

Ahem, sorry about that. I haven't gotten my usual evil rant in for over a month, and it's been building up for a _long_ time. Thank you for all of you guys' and gals' patience on my story. A _lot_ has happened to me over the last month-and-a-half. I had to move back home, and that's all that you all really need to know. Unfortunately, this means no more orgasmic cookies to motivate me further by my beta. BUT, that doesn't mean I won't keep on writing. Writing helps me in more ways than anyone could hope to understand, and this last week I've felt happier than I have ever since all this shit started happening in my life. I'm not complaining, mind you, I did this to myself, and I'm going to face the music that I've conducted. It's just not as easy to do it as I thought as it would.

Now then, reasoning on my chapter time. I haven't written much Suzaku in awhile, and I felt that the deuterogonist from the series had earned a little more screen time. He's an important, complex character in my story, so anyone wanting Suzaku to be bashed should leave now. I actually liked Suzaku, he was the perfect contrast Lelouch, like L was to Light (Don't even get me started on a Death Note rant). Also, in my story, Lelouch knows that _this_ Suzaku hasn't betrayed him, so there's no reason to hate someone who hasn't done you any wrongs. Now he may not be _my _deuterogonist, but the White Knight is important. _My _deuterogonist has been made plainly clear to you all. I mean, she has the second-most POVs, short only to Lelouch. (It's Kallen, in case you guys didn't know.)

Now for the rest of it all. No, Cornelia doesn't want Zero dead anymore, if that's not clear enough. Lelouch and I have _very _devious plans regarding her, but those won't show up for a _very_ long time. Probably not until Part 5. Oh, I also have named Part 4, in case you all wanted to know. Its name is "Guren and Geass" for what all will be happening in it. I don't think that it'll be as long as Knights and Princesses has become, but hell, I thought Part 3 was going to be, at most, five chapters. Yet here we are, reaching the sixth installment with two more to go after it.

I'll be honest with you all. I never expected my story to _ever_ become as large as it has, and there's still no end in sight to it. Hell, Chapter 9 (MY chapter 9, mind you) has gotten nearly FIFTY FRICKING REVIEWS! Granted, it's been a long time since I've updated again, so that would be where most people would probably leave a review after reading it the first time. I've almost reached six-hundred favs and follows. I guess that I should tell you what my goal is for my story, but I'm willing to wait for a few years before I reach it.

I want Once More, with Feeling to become the MOST favorited and followed story on the Code Geass page here on Fanfiction. Now, I just thought it to simply be a pipe dream, because, let's be honest. There are the Big 3 as I call them, each one with over two-THOUSAND favorites and follows, and here I was. Never even tried to publish any of my writings before and rather timid with absolutely no "Old Shame" to look at and see where my writing needed improvement. I like to think that I've grown as I've been writing this story for you all. Now, don't take this as me being cocky and not respecting Allora Gale, kyugan, or Cal reflector. I've read each of those stories and I respect their plots and writing styles. It's not really possible to have such a successful story if it's crappy. However, now that I've told you guys this, what do you think? Do you think that it's possible for my story to become _the _Code Geass story? I've always been told, "If you're going to dream, dream big."

Thanks for listening to my ranting, it feels good to let all this out every now and then. I've been stewing on this for the longest time. There will be another update here soon, but it depends on when I get enough done to finish Part 3. It'll either be this upcoming weekend or the following one. I have to finish writing up the rest of Part 3 and then get going on my Naruto fic, and this _Inheritance_ Cycle fic that's been bouncing around in my cranium for weeks now. These damned plot bunnies are so annoying, but my beta has heard my ideas and told me to give 'em a go. I wish that I could come up with some crappy ideas every once in a while so that I can just focus on one thing at a time, but alas, I am not so lucky.

Thanks again you all. I really appreciate you guys staying with me so far, and hope to keep you all on as my story begins to begin its true divergent plot. Because it's not until Part 4 where the changes made _really _begin to make an impact. You'll understand in the next chapter what my reasoning is behind waiting for the changes to take affect.

Later all, I'll see you next time in the Kawaguchi Finale.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

* * *

Kallen brought the van to a halt a few moments after they'd been allowed by the gates. As she did, the Knightmare Ace counted three J.L.F. soldiers around the news vehicle.

"You ready?" Ohgi asked her.

Kallen took a deep breath to help steady herself. "Yeah," she answered quietly. "Just a little nervous about what Zero said we'd be doing afterwards."

"It is nerve-wracking," the former schoolteacher agreed. "But Zero knows what he's doing. We'll be getting a lot of support after tonight."

"If we're successful," Kallen pointed out.

Ohgi looked over at her and gave her a kind smile. "Has that one loss changed you this much?" he asked. "The Kallen I know never lets doubt cloud her mind. I remember her telling her brother once that, 'If you don't believe you'll succeed, then you won't ever win.'"

Kallen winced as Ohgi's words hit her ears. _He's right,_ she realized. The red-head then peered down at her shaking palms. _Did losing to Guilford really shake me this bad?_ She then clenched her fists and her arms ceased their shaking. _I am Kallen Kozuki,_ she told herself. _I am a warrior and a true Ace. Confidence and belief are key to winning. If I can't believe in myself, then who will?_

"Come out now!" a voice shouted from outside the van. "All of you within the van!"

Zero's voice then came through the van's walls, "There's no one in the van. You and your friends there are here just to escort me too your commander. Now take me to Kusakabe."

"Of course," the J.L.F. soldier said back to Zero.

Kallen and Ohgi both pulled their visors over their eyes lower instinctively. They both knew what Zero had just done to that man. Their leader had just used his Geass to ensure that the rest of his group could enter the Kawaguchi hotel undetected.

_Geass really is a terrifying power,_ Kallen thought to herself. She then watched with a mixture of both awe and disgust as Zero was led away by all of the J.L.F. members stationed outside the hotel.

Two full minutes passed by agonizingly slowly before Kallen, Ohgi, and the rest of the old Kozuki Cell all climbed out of the news van. Kallen then ran over her instructions from Zero in her head.

"Alright," Ohgi broke the silence between them all. "Tamaki is to take all the news cameras from the van and begin setting them up for the show later."

Tamaki grumbled about the unfairness of it all, but didn't try and get out of his responsibilities.

"Inoue and Kallen are to handle the hostage liberation and then set the explosives on that floor and the one below it," Ohgi continued to explain.

_Thankfully,_ Kallen thought, _I won't be escorting them._

"Minami, Sugiyama, Yoshida, and I," Ohgi reiterated their responsibilities, "will handle the lower floors and then escort the hostages to the yacht and the lifeboats. Once Tamaki is done with the cameras he'll join Inoue and Kallen in handling the upper floors. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" every member chorused as they acknowledged their orders.

Kallen and her fellow female nodded to each other. They both loaded their rifles and then set off to the stairs. Zero had instructed them to use the Southeast stairwell because it would be the least guarded.

Inoue opened the door into the stairwell and the two women flew into the stairway. Each of them both told the other, "Clear!"

Kallen kneeled down at the base of the stairs and pointed her rifle up onto the next landing and motioned with her head for Inoue to climb the stairs. The older woman climbed up the stairs silently and then set herself up in the same position Kallen had been in at the base of the stairs, and then gave her partner a brief nod. Kallen then went up the stairs and repeated the unspoken process.

The two women continually repeated this procedure and climbed the stairs without saying a word to each other. They reached the twenty-second floor after five minutes of continual ascension.

Kallen and Inoue both poised themselves at the door with their weapons readied. "It might be a good idea to put the silencers on," Inoue whispered.

"Agreed." Kallen then pulled two suppressors from her uniform's chest pocket and handed one to her partner. They both quickly twisted the suppressors onto their rifles and steadied their weapons once more.

Inoue placed her hand on the door's lever and asked, "Ready?"

Kallen gave a short nod in response and looked down her weapon's sights.

Inoue took a deep breath to steady her nerves and silently pushed the door open. The entry door slid open on oiled hinges and Kallen bolted through the opening. As soon as she made it into the hallway she knelt down to minimize her size and aimed her assault weapon down the length of the hallway to her left. Inoue did the same to the right.

There wasn't anyone present in the halls, but neither woman moved their weapons. After a tense minute had passed with no activity in the halls close to the two women, they both exhaled and stood up.

"Do you remember where Zero said the hostages would be?" Inoue asked her.

"Food storage closet," Kallen replied. "Room Twenty-two twenty. What are we at right now?"

Inoue looked at the door across from where they entered and answered, "Twenty-two fifty-one."

"Do the numbers decrease on your side?" Kallen did not dare take her eyes from the corner on her side for fear of being caught unawares.

"They do," her fellow female confirmed.

"Get to that corner and let me know if you see anyone in the hall," Kallen whispered. "I'll make sure nobody can catch us in the back."

"Roger that," the older woman affirmed. She then moved away from Kallen and took her position. After peeking around the corner she tapped the wall three times, signaling the all-clear.

Kallen began to slowly walk backwards, never taking her eyes off of the other corner. As she continued to inch her way towards her partner, the carpeted floors muffled the sounds of her boots hitting the floor as they fell.

The red-head felt a light tap on her shoulder and she whirled around and saw Inoue. The older woman gave her a short nod and the pair then quickly made their way down the hallway's length.

Kallen and Inoue passed room Twenty-two thirty-two as they heard a door hiss open behind them.

Kallen didn't even bother to think, she only reacted. The fiery Ace spun on her heel and looked down her rifle's sights. She knelt on a knee to help steady her aim and leaned her shoulder into the butt of her weapon.

As soon as she saw a green uniform emerge from one of the doors, she shifted her aim and the assault weapon's crosshairs were centered on the center of the green mass. Kallen pulled the trigger and a three-round burst silently fired from the rifle with barely any recoil at all.

The rounds found their mark and sunk into the man's chest, each one piercing a vital organ. He fell over, dead, with blood pooling beneath him.

_Why did I do that?_ Kallen asked herself. _He was Japanese, yet I just killed him. _What really disturbed the half-breed was that she felt no remorse over ending the J.L.F. member's life.

A soft hand fell on her shoulder and Kallen immediately recognized it as Inoue's. "Let's go," her partner said softly. "We need to free the hostages."

Kallen only nodded in answer and the two of them silently resumed their search for the hostages.

After a few brief moments of traversing the hallway, they came upon a corner and quietly peeked around it. Kallen saw two men stiffly standing outside a doorway.

_That must be where the hostages are,_ she figured. Kallen then leaned back behind the cover of the corner and met with Inoue's eyes.

"How many?" the older woman whispered.

"Two on the outside," she whispered back. "I'd bet there are two more inside."

Inoue briefly nodded and asked, "What do you want to do?"

Kallen thought for a minute before she asked her partner, "How good of a shot are you?"

"Almost as good as you," was her response.

Kallen nodded. "That works. Stay here and watch those two guards. I'm going around to the other side to get a better angle on the far one. When you see him fall, take out the other one. The one's inside should investigate then. We'll take those out when they open the door."

Inoue nodded and accepted her new orders. The indigo-haired woman then checked her rifle and made sure that the safety was off.

Kallen trusted her partner not to move to soon, so she then moved as quickly and silently as possible down the hall. As she passed the corpse of the J.L.F. soldier, Kallen closed his eyes and then went on her way. The pilot didn't encounter any other soldiers, and she came to the other corner after a few minutes of travel.

As she arrived, Kallen peeked out from behind the corner and noticed that nothing had changed. _Good,_ she thought. _This can work then._

Kallen gave her rifle one more once over and saw that the safety was, indeed, off. She then leveled her assault weapon and peered down the sights.

The warrior took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. She shut her left eye, concentrated on her heart beat, and brought the weapon's crosshairs on the enemy's head. She waited for the moment in-between heart beats, just like Naoto had taught her, and pulled the trigger.

A single bullet was fired from her weapon and connected with its target between his eyes. The man's brains splattered out the back of his head and he then fell to the floor in a heap. He was dead before he could even blink an eye.

Kallen watched the other man meet the same fate, courtesy of a trio of assault rounds in his chest from Inoue.

The red-haired warrior took in another deep breath and held it as she aimed at the door. She waited for it to open.

After another twenty-six seconds, the door slid open to reveal only a single J.L.F. soldier. The man noticed the corpses immediately and shouted something in Japanese into the room, but was silenced when two rounds from Kallen caught him in the throat. He then joined the other two guards on the floor in a dead pile.

The door into the hostages then slid shut and Kallen muttered a few curses. _Damn it! That means that there's at least one other soldier in there._

Kallen stood up and walked out from behind her cover, muttering curse words in Japanese and English. She saw Inoue come out from behind the other corner with an unreadable expression on her face.

"Do you have anything we can use temporarily paralyze the last one in there?" Kallen asked. Before Inoue could answer she said, "Hold on. We need to block his radio so that he can't call any reinforcements.

Inoue nodded and Kallen took out a small, rectangular device that had a large, red button on it. Kallen pressed the button and a faint buzzing was heard from the corpses by the door.

"Good," the red-head sighed. "The signal-jammer works. Now my earlier question."

"I think I have something," Inoue replied. The older woman then reached into her uniform's jacket pocket and pulled out two small, circular objects. "Standard issue Britannian flashbang grenades," she provided. "They're designed to temporarily disorient and disable. Once thrown, these babies will let out a bright flash that will blind anyone in the room, as well as let out a high-pitched sound that disrupts the inner ear, thus throwing off a person's equilibrium."

"Will it affect the hostages?"

"Some may go deaf in an ear," the older woman admitted. "But that's better than dying. These will give us the time and opportunity to take out the other guard with minimal risk to the hostages."

Kallen accepted her partner's reasoning with a nod. "Alright. We'll use them. Toss 'em in after I open the door."

"Word of warning," Inoue said. "You might wanna plug your ears and shut your eyes, even if you're outside the room. These little buggers are just that strong. Once I toss these in, count to six in your head before you open your eyes. That's when we'll clear the room."

Kallen accepted Inoue's explanation with a nod and then stationed herself next to the door panel. Inoue pressed her back against the other side of the door. The two women's eyes met and Inoue gave a short nod. Kallen returned the nod with her own, and then opened the door.

Inoue primed the two flashbangs and threw them into the room. Both women shut their eyes tight and covered their ears. Kallen counted to six before she heard a faint explosion, followed by a great many cries from the room.

The two women bolted into the room and ignored the wails of the hostages as they scanned the room for the last J.L.F. hostage guard. Kallen spotted him hiding behind an older male hostage in the corner of the room.

She didn't bother to think once more. She grabbed her switchblade knife from her hip and bolted across the room while the enemy was still disoriented.

As she reached the green-clad man, she tore him away from the hostage. She then buried her knife in the soldier's chest so deep that the blade disappeared. The J.L.F. member's eyes widened as the cool steel pierced his heart, and then his chest stilled and rose no more.

Kallen yanked her knife from the man's chest and winced as blood fountained from his chest. She forced herself from the sight of the rapidly cooling corpse and wiped the blood off of her knife with a rag that had been on one of the shelves.

As she repocketed her knife Kallen scanned the group of hostages for her friends. Her sapphire eyes found that unique shade of orange hair and she let out a sigh in relief. There with Shirley were Nina and Milly, with the oldest cradling the frail girl against her chest.

_Thank God they're alright,_ Kallen said to herself. _I can't let them see me though._ She then left the room and Inoue followed her out.

"Good job in there Kozuki," Inoue said as they waited in the hallway. "I didn't even see the guy until you'd already gotten to him."

Kallen remained silent, she was still far too close to Milly and the other two to risk speaking. Zero had warned her not to speak in fear of the Student Council members recognizing her voice.

"E-excuse me," an elderly gentleman came out to the door. "Who are you?"

"We're here to save you," Inoue spoke up so that Kallen wouldn't have to. "Our friends will be here soon to safely escort you all soon. We will make sure that you're protected until then."

"We appreciate it," the man thanked them and then retreated back into the room.

A few moments passed before the sound of a group of footsteps came from down the hallway. Kallen leveled her assault rifle in the direction of the approaching group in case it was more J.L.F. members.

"It's us!" Ohgi's voice came from behind the corner.

Kallen let out a deep breath in relief. Here nakama had arrived.

"About time," Inoue said as Minami, Ohgi, Sugiyama, Yoshida, and Tamaki came around the corner. "We were beginning to wonder if you got caught or something."

"A brief delay," Ohgi told her, "but Sugiyama took care of it. You guys can start on your next objective. We'll take it from here."

"Roger that," Inoue confirmed.

Kallen simply nodded once and then her, Inoue, and Tamaki set off to set their responsibility of explosives.

As she stepped into the stairwell to go up to the next floor, Kallen let her relief wash over her. _I killed four men,_ she recalled every detail of each kill. _But I'd do it again so long as I can protect those I care about._

Kallen let a faint smile grace her face, even though she felt disgusted with herself.

* * *

Lelouch let his foot tap impatiently as the elevator continued to climb up the hotel. The display screen showed that they'd just passed the seventeenth floor.

_Six more to go,_ he thought, impatience flooding his mind. _Did it take this long the last time I was here?_

Lelouch smirked to himself as he saw the pained grimaces on his escorts' faces. They didn't appear to like his attitude, but weren't willing to speak up and chastise him for it.

_Zero is truly frightening,_ the masked prince thought fondly. The final ring then came from the elevator. _Finally!_

The J.L.F. soldiers with him then led Lelouch down the hallway and to the door of a fairly luxurious suite. One of the soldiers knocked twice and said, "We've brought Zero here, just as instructed."

The door slid open and Lelouch was escorted into the room once more. It was exactly as he remembered it to be.

All of the room's lights had been shut off to prevent the windows from showing shadows, adequate sniper nullification tactics. There were around ten Japanese men within the room, all wearing those eyesores of J.L.F. uniforms. And on the couch, same as before, sat Kusakabe with his katana laid over his lap.

"So you're the infamous Zero then," the leader of the hotel-jackers opened with. "I expected you to be taller."

"Appearances may be deceiving, Lieutenant Colonel," Lelouch answered as he walked across the room.

"That is true," Kusakabe admitted. "But to me you seem little more than skin-and-bones beneath that suit and cape. I find it hard to believe, now that I get a close look at you, that you managed to get by all of Clovis' guards undetected."

"Smaller people can squeeze into smaller spaces," he answered wryly.

A grin cracked upon the Lieutenant Colonel's face. "That may be true, but now I must ask you. Why are you here? There is little for you to gain here."

"Oh I beg to differ," the prince smirked behind his mask. He didn't bother asking if Kusakabe wished to join him or not, that conversation spiraled out of control quickly. "But let us not muse on what I may or may not gain. It is not something you should worry over."

"Before we begin our discussion further," the J.L.F. Lieutenant Colonel interrupted, "take off your mask and let us speak as equals. It is disrespectful to hide your face."

Lelouch almost burst into laughter at the request, but held it in. "Tell me Colonel," he said. "Why should I reveal my face to you when not even my own followers have seen it yet?"

"You've not shown your own men?" Kusakabe asked incredulously.

"No," the revolutionary responded flatly. "Now I wish to ask you something. What is it that you seek to gain with this meaningless hotel-jacking."

"Gain attention," the false samurai answered. "I want the people and the world to know that the Japanese aren't dead yet."

"Yet with this action," Lelouch countered," you have doomed any chances of support coming from anyone but Kyoto. I find it difficult to believe you truly wish to liberate Japan if you are willing to do this."

"What was that!?" one of the random J.L.F. grunts shouted at him.

"How dare you!?" another exclaimed.

Kusakabe held up a hand to halt any violent action his men could take on Zero. "Explain what you mean by that Zero," the Japanese man implored.

Another smirk grew on Lelouch's face beneath the mask of Zero. "Do you truly believe that you can save Japan with naught buy Kyoto supporting you?" he asked dramatically. "If so, then you drastically underestimate the strength of Britannia's military might. If – and that's a large if – the J.L.F. were able to expel Britannia from Area Eleven, Japan would fall in less than a fortnight. Japan is dead; gone with the ages."

Again the J.L.F. leader ceased his men from killing Lelouch right then. "You say that Japan is dead, not the Japanese?" Kusakabe asked.

"You are smarter than most," the prince complimented the commander. "Japan is dead and gone, dust in the past. The nation you all long for can never be truly revived. If Japan was re-established, it would be a farce. A poor imitation of what it once was. I have seen Mount Fuji in its most sacred glory be cruelly mined into with not a mind caring for its natural beauty. That mountain is a fitting metaphor for Japan. No longer as it was but seven years ago.

"But the Japanese still live on. You are a proud race, and a resilient one at that. The Japanese people sit and hope for their Kamikaze to rid them of their shackles and open up the future that awaits them. Yet all the J.L.F. seeks is the past, a rotten husk of what it once was."

"So this is how we are to you then," Kusakabe said slowly. "Just a bunch of dreamers who can't accept reality and move on?"

Lelouch almost snorted. "Only those in your ranks who believe in this dream of 'Reviving Japan.' You can't reanimate a corpse. Frankenstein was just a book, no one has the powers of a God."

"I see then."

"I must ask," the masked youth couldn't help it. "What did Tohdoh; or even Katase have to say about this operation when you presented it to them?"

The flash of rage across the Lieutenant Colonel's face gave Lelouch all the answers he sought. Kusakabe had gone against both Tohdoh and Katase when he began this operation.

Just then, a knock was heard at the door. A man on the other side then said through the wooden door, "I've brought the hostage I radioed about earlier. She claims she's Princess Euphemia."

Lelouch felt his heart clench in his chest at the mention of his sister.

"Zero," the J.L.F. false samurai growled out. "There's no point talking anymore!" Kusakabe roared as he drew his katana and vaulted over the table between them.

His left eye burned crimson as his mask slid open and Lelouch ordered all J.L.F. members within the room simply, "Die."

The faint red lines circled all the Japanese men's eyes and each followed the Geass command. Kusakabe committed seppuku, as if he were a true follower of bushido and not an honorless terrorist. The rest of the J.L.F. soldiers present in the suite all pointed their rifles at each other and fired, each one falling to the floor.

Lelouch pulled out his sidearm, forced his arm to stop shaking, and aimed at the doorway in expectation of its opening.

The door hissed open and one J.L.F. grunt ran in yelling, "Commander!" But he was cut off by a bullet in his shoulder, courtesy of Lelouch's uncaring aim.

"Calm yourselves!" he told the J.L.F. soldiers escorting his half-sister. "The Colonel and the others committed suicide when they realized how meaningless this operation truly was. Euphemia," his voice softened, "you sacrificed yourself for the commoners. You haven't changed."

"What the –!" one of the other green-clad men escorting Euphy screamed as his gaze went down the hall. "Who the hell are you three!?" he attempted to demand.

"Zero," Kallen's voice came from the hallway. "All objectives accomplished."

"Excellent," he said back. "Are the two I suspect should be with you there?"

"They are," came Kallen's reply.

"The two of them are to escort our J.L.F. friends to join their other friends down below. You will wait outside the door until Miss li Britannia and I finish our discussion. You will then escort her to join the other hostages. Understood, Q-1?" Zero ordered as he hid his pistol beneath his cape.

"Roger that," the blue-eyed half-breed replied. Euphemia was then ushered into the room with Zero and Kallen shut the door as the Sub-Viceroy entered.

"Rather well-trained," Euphy commented evenly as she walked across the room, her head held high.

"Just dedicated," he answered through the mask. "She has ample reasons to follow me, but I do not wish to speak with the Third Princess of Britannia about my followers."

"Neither do I," Euphy stated off-handedly. "There's so much I wish to discuss with you, but we have little time. So let me cut to the chase and ask you what I've wondered for awhile now. What's the _real_ reason you killed my half-brother Clovis? Was it vengeance?"

_Not this time,_ Lelouch thought as he began to chuckle. "No," he answered in a whisper. "Clovis died because he was an offspring of the Britannian Emperor. That reminds me," he said as he pulled his sidearm back out from beneath his cape. "You're one of his children too, aren't you?"

"I am," Euphemia answered with a nod. However, there was no fear or worry in her eyes. Only… joy and compassion.

"You must be very courageous to face death and not bat an eye," the hidden prince said icily, his weapon still poised and ready to end her life.

"I am scared of death," she answered him. "But I know for certain that you won't kill me Zero."

"And why wouldn't I?" he posed. "We are enemies in this game are we not? You sit on the side of Britannian Royalty, and I oppose you. Killing you would cripple your sister's mental stability and make it all the easier to free Japan from Britannian rule. There are plenty of reasons to kill you, my princess."

"I said that you won't kill me," she answered him. "What I should have said is that you _can't _kill me."

The faintest of smiles graced Lelouch's features from beneath Zero's mask. _So she did figure it out already._ "And why, pray tell, _can't _I kill you?"

"Because Nunnally would be devastated and would never be able to forgive Zero for killing me," his half-sister stated as if she were saying that the sky was blue. "And I know how much she means to the man behind the mask."

A grim laugh escaped from the mask. "Yes," he admitted. "Your sister is, indeed, quite important to me. And it is for that reason, along with many others, that I _can't _end your life Euphy."

The princess' magenta eyes softened as he placed his sidearm away once more. She then called to him "Lelouch."

He had to force his heart back down and battled against every sense within him in order to keep him from answering her call.

"Can't we please end this charade and become a family again?" she asked him.

"I'm afraid that it is far too soon for Zero to show his face to you," Lelouch answered his sister with a heavy heart.

"Then is it possible to just let Zero die and live on?" she pleaded.

"I'm afraid not," the masked youth continued to deny her. "After tonight, Zero cannot afford to die. He will become a symbol, an avatar of hope. And it is through this hope that the Japanese shall rise again, and eventually help unseat Charles zi Britannia. For it is not until that man dies that the world may achieve peace."

Euphemia was silent for a moment, her hands clenched and shaking at her side and her eyes at the floor. "If Zero can't be killed," she spoke again, "then may Lelouch be revived?"

"He was never dead in the first place," the brother answered her softly.

"Then how would I get to speak with him?" she pleaded to him, tears forming at the edge of her beautiful magenta eyes. "There's so much that I want to say."

"And he will listen," the masked leader of the Black Knights answered her. He then turned around briskly and gazed out the suite's wall-window. "Follow the trail you have been," he gave her. "That will lead to you reuniting with your brother and sister. However, should Cornelia find them, Lelouch will forever vanish and never appear again until Zero is no longer needed. Do you understand?"

"I do," Euphy sobbed. "Thank you Zero. I will make sure that my sister doesn't hear of Lelouch and Nunnally. And Lelouch," there was a brief moment of silence before the slender arms and pink hair wrapped the masked youth in a loving embrace. "It's good to see you again."

_It truly is,_ he mentally agreed. Lelouch had to force himself away from turning around in her arms and returning the embrace with one of his own. Even though his mind and body were in turmoil, his appearance to the world was one of calm as a simple stream.

Euphy withdrew from him after another moment where neither of the two siblings moved. "Until we meet again," she paused. "Zero." The sound of sound of footsteps then led to the distinct hiss of the suite's door opening, and then another hiss of its closing.

Lelouch's gaze remained steadfast as he allowed a deep exhale escape from him. He then felt a single tear fall from his left eye.

"Everything is not as it once was," the masked prince spoke aloud to his own echo in the silent suite. "Now I must prepare for things even I can't predict." Something that C.C. had told him the night after he'd killed Clovis the second time rang in his mind.

"_Time is like a grand river," the immortal woman had explained to him. "It has a set beginning and end. One cannot change the course of time, just like one is unable to alter the course of a river. Events may ripple and change, just as the surface of the river does when a pebble is thrown into its waters. Remember this, Lelouch. Time does not change because of a person's will._

"We shall see about that," the Black King smirked from behind Zero's mask. "For it is actually possible to change the course of a river. You just need a large enough pebble to dam it."

Just as he spoke this, the Lancelot broke out from the utilities tunnel and fired the V.A.R.I.S. at the foundation block of the hotel. Lelouch then felt the building tremble and shake beneath him as he stared at Suzaku.

"Watch," he spoke once more as he raised the detonator. "Watch me Charles, Marianne, V.V., and even God. For I will never allow something as small as fate to determine my destiny!"

As his gloved hand pressed down on the detonation switch, the hotel was racked with explosions and Lelouch's devilish smirk came upon his face once more.

* * *

Euphemia felt the first shockwave from the hotel behind her and turned to look back at where she had just come from while she had one foot in the life raft.

_Lelouch,_ she thought worriedly.

"Sub-Viceroy," the female guard that had tried to prevent her from saving Milly and the blonde's friends called. "We need to hurry, or we'll get caught in the blast."

Euphy closed her eyes tight and allowed herself to hope that Zero wouldn't be harmed by those explosions. She then opened her eyes and nodded to her guard. The pink-haired princess then climbed into the inflatable raft and took a seat near her guard.

"I wonder if…" she trailed off and tore her eyes from the sight of the slowly submerging hotel.

Another wave of explosions rocked the hotel behind them and the princess' guard shielded Euphy with her body. A tense moment passed where Euphemia couldn't see anything other than her guard's chest.

"I really appreciate you protecting me and all," she tried to speak loud enough so her guard would hear her. "But I think that you can get off of me now."

Another moment passed before her shield climbed off of her with a nod. "Forgive me Sub-Viceroy," the female guard said. "But I wasn't able to protect you earlier. Princess Cornelia would not have been pleased had to come to any harm."

"You needn't worry," the princess tried to assure her guard. "I'll make sure that the Viceroy knows that I made the decision to reveal myself, against your protests. I promise you won't be harmed or demoted for my actions."

"I thank you Sub-Viceroy."

Euphemia scanned the other lifeboats in search of Milly Ashford and the other two girls who'd been with her. The blonde girl – no, woman, Euphy corrected herself – was with her two friends in a raft about fifteen yards away from the princess' raft. Milly had been staring at her with a curious look in her eyes.

Euphemia gave her childhood friend a small wave and a faint smile. Milly smiled in response and then returned to helping with her two friends.

_She must have thought me killed,_ the pink-haired girl thought to herself. _I don't really blame her really. I would've thought the same in her place._

The gentle swaying of the raft brought Euphemia away from her thoughts and she noticed that the smoke surrounding the rafts was beginning to fade away and dissipate. She then saw a white yacht emerge from behind the smokescreen and she let out a sigh in relief. She had seen Zero standing on the yacht.

_Thank God that he's alright,_ she thought fondly. _But why does he have all those T.V. cameras pointing at him?_ she wondered.

"Sub-Viceroy," her guard reached for her.

"Yes?"

"If I may," the woman began. "What is it that you and Zero discussed?"

Euphy gave the older woman a gentle smile. "Just matters that concern the Royal Family. I'll inform the Viceroy on what the two of us spoke of. Understood?"

"Of course, your highness."

"My dear Britannians," Zero's voice boomed from the yacht, "have no fear. All of the hostages from the hotel are safe and sound. I, Zero, return them to you unharmed."

_What are you doing Lelouch?_ Euphy pondered on his words from earlier. _Is this what you meant?_

Floodlights then flickered on one-by-one aboard the yacht. As each light came on, they illuminated the forms of seven people standing behind Zero's form. Each of them was dressed in a black jacket with silver lining. The two men closest to Zero's sides had their right arms across their chest and were slightly bowing as they presented themselves to the world. Five of the seven were male and all wore lengthy, dark pants with their jackets. The other two were females; one of them wore a skirt with a similar design to her jacket, and the other wore a pair of shorts that came down to about mid-thigh with the same colors as her jacket as well. Each of Zero's followers wore a small black-and-silver hat and a purple visor that blocked off their faces from the observers.

"People," the masked man's voice boomed once more. "Fear us, or rally behind us as you see fit! We are the Black Knights!"

_Black Knights?_ The princess mulled it over in her head. She then grew a knowing smile and thought, _Ironic choice._

"We of the Black Knights," Zero continued, "stand with all those with no weapons to wield. Regardless of whether they be Elevens, or Britannians! The Japan Liberation Front cowardly took innocent Britannian civilians hostage, and then mercilessly executed them! It was a wanton and meaningless act. Therefore they have been punished."

_Punished?_ She wondered at his word choice. _When I arrived, Kusakabe and the rest of the men with him committed suicide. There's no way Zero could be responsible for their deaths._

"Just as former Viceroy Clovis was punished for ordering the slaughter of countless unarmed Elevens," the masked voice continued his speech, "we could not stand by and allow such cruelty to be carried out. And so we made him pay for his actions. I will not repudiate battle on a fair and level field, but neither will I tolerate a one-sided massacre of the weak by the strong! The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed!

"Wherever oppressors abuse their power by attacking those who are powerless, we shall appear again. No matter how mighty, how formidable our foe may be!"

Euphy noticed that Zero's speech had given her goosebumps. _I'm sure glad I'm not in his sights._

"Those of you with power, fear us!" he exclaimed as he extended his left arm, making his cape flap open to that side. "Those of you without it, rally behind us!" the right arm extended this time. "We, the Black Knights, shall be the ones who stand in judgment of this world!"

_What are you doing Lelouch?_ Euphemia wondered once more. _What are you trying to accomplish._ She was unable to answer these questions as her elder sister pulled her from the life raft and placed her in a bone-crunching hug.

* * *

**A/N: **I'm back everyone! Don't know for how long, but I'm back. Apologies for the delay, I got caught up in reading some HP fics, as well as getting to work. (My favorite pairings for HP would now have to be Harry/Daphne or Harry/Fleur, if you wanted to know. I'm currently wondering why nobody's tried doing a love triangle story with those two.)

I'm going to say this customary disclaimer: I hold no rights to Zero's speech. I did not create it. That right belongs to the lucky and ingenious bastard who created such a marvelous story such as Code Geass. I only used it because I honestly couldn't come up with anything better than the speech used in the anime.

My beta told me to look at it like this: Lelouch is a very dramatic person, and also very vain. He probably thought that some things were done so well the first time that there's no point in trying to change it this time either.

Now then, for the heart-wrenching announcement that I've been dreading making for some time ever since I realized that I would have to make it.

After I've finished Part 3, I will be taking a brief break from Once More, with Feeling so that I can focus on the other ideas in my head. You know; the Naruto fic, as well as the other stories that refuse to let me sleep at night.

Now before you grab your torches and pitchforks and form and angry mob calling out for my blood, hear me out. I have every intention of returning to this story and finishing it. Granted, with how much I've got planned out, it would take me a few years to finish this story. I intend on at least coming back to this story every other month, so you will get updates after Part 3, they just won't be that high on the priority list at the time.

I should be finishing up the Knights and Princesses arc either next week or the following week, so there is another update on the way.

I am deeply sorry for disappointing you all, but I can't just abandon my other children either. I want to develop those stories to a certain point before I can refocus in on this one.

Now then, since I've got the hard part out, what'd you guys think? I know you all were eagerly anticipating Zero and Euphemia's confrontation, and you got it. How'd I do on it? Personally, the part the I loved writing the most was Kallen's HRT (Hostage Rescue Team) operation. It's the first time I've ever written a scene like that, so I'd also like your opinions on how that scene was done. I had my father help me out a bit with that one, seeing as how he was once trained in HRTs. I know that the whole Black Knight introduction was underwhelming, but I really couldn't come up with a way to do it better than canon did.

Thanks again for reading, I'll go find my little whole to hide in now so that nobody can find me and kill me for that little announcement earlier.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

* * *

Lelouch was sitting at his desk as he stared out his bedroom window and watched the sun slowly rise in the east.

The new-day sky was painted with hues of lavender, violet, orange, red, and yellow that alluded to a beautiful coming day. However, the violet-eyed prince knew that to be a lie.

Today was one of the days that he'd been dreading having to re-experience. It was a day of complete and utter tragedy in his past life, and there had been no indication that this vile day wouldn't be repeated.

He hadn't been able to sleep at all last night, even without there being any Black Knight activities planned. Even his lover's presence in his arms beside him couldn't get him to relax.

"Lelouch," C.C. sleepily drawled from the bed. "What are you doing up this early?"

He twisted his head around and saw C.C. was rubbing her eyes and letting out an exaggerated yawn. "Couldn't sleep," he answered.

"Is is really today then?" the immortal asked.

"Every sign points to it," the raven-haired youth told her.

"Why not stop it yourself?" she asked as she threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood up.

"You know I can't afford to do that," he said seriously. "I'd rather see how these changes have already affected what's to come before trying anything I haven't already planned on."

C.C. clumsily sauntered over to him and then plopped herself on his lap. She then gave him a sultry smile and began to grind her hips on his thighs.

"Not today," he sighed out. His small hands then grabbed her hips and forcibly held them still.

The green-haired woman's mischievous expressed disappeared and was replaced by one of sober seriousness. "You're really serious about this?"

"Yes," Lelouch told her. "I at least owe her that much, even if she doesn't know it yet."

"You know what could happen don't you?"

The prince nodded in response. "I doubt that it'd occur until after Narita though. It would be best if it didn't happen until after we meet up with Kyoto, but that's being optimistic."

"What will you do if that happens sooner than Narita?" she asked him sternly.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Accelerate the appropriate plans," the prince revealed simply. "Not much else I can do then."

"You can use your Geass to –"

"Don't you finish that statement," Lelouch interrupted with a fierce expression. "I'm still not certain about some of my theories yet, and until I can test them I don't intend on using it any more than necessary."

C.C.'s amber eyes closed and she let out a resigned sigh. "Very well," she acknowledged his stubbornness. The nude woman then climbed off of his lap and stretched her arms outward. "Have you showered?"

A curt nod was his answer to her.

"I really hope you know what you're doing Lelouch," C.C. offered to him as she strutted into the bathroom for her shower.

"As do I," he murmured under his breath. His violet eyes traveled over the partly-cloudy morning sky and he took in the canvas of the clouds once more.

Usually, whenever he did this, this simple action would grant him some measure of peace in his mind, but now the pain in his gut just refused to leave him alone. Nothing he did could rid him of the knowledge of what was to happen in only seventeen hours, after the moon had risen into the night sky once more.

"You're really dreading tonight, aren't you?"

C.C.'s question startled him back away from his gazing. He turned around in his chair and noticed that she'd just emerged from the bathroom.

A yellow towel was wrapped around her that covered from her breasts to the base of her hips. Her lengthy green hair still dripped with water from its ends and clung to her body tightly, framing her form. The moisture still on her skin and in her hair sparkled and glistened in the morning sun, giving her an almost ethereal beauty that none could compare.

"I've been watching you for the last five minutes," the immoral revealed to him softly. "You haven't moved at all."

Lelouch's calculating mind immediately told him just how long had actually passed. C.C.'s showers never lasted less than forty-five minutes. She spent around another five drying herself and brushing her teeth. And she'd apparently been watching him for five minutes. He'd been lost in his thoughts and guilty conscience for, more than likely, over an hour.

The raven-haired youth shook his head to help rid himself of his mental ramblings. "Sorry," he apologized with a faint smile that didn't reach his eyes. "You know how I get when I start plotting."

C.C.'s brows creased and she stared at her lover with narrowed eyes. "You're a terrible liar; you know that?"

Lelouch couldn't help but burst out laughing at that. The list of things that he was terrible at was lengthy, he'd be the first to admit that he wasn't perfect. But _lying_?

"You only say that," he replied after his laughter had died down, "because you are one of the few who've seen beneath the mask."

C.C. smirked at his response. "I never said _who_ you were a terrible liar to, now did I?"

The corners of the prince's lips twitched upwards. "Thanks C.C.," he gratefully said to his lover. "I needed that."

She offered him one of her genuine smiles that she only would show to him. "Of course you did," the golden eyed woman answered haughtily. "Nobody knows you as _thoroughly_ as I do," she finished with a lecherous smirk. The towel-clad woman then leaned over to him and her breasts began to peek out from her towel.

Lelouch averted his eyes from the bountiful mounds and felt a flush rise in his cheeks. He then stood up stiffly, his gaze still at the wall to his left.

C.C.'s breath tickled his neck as she pulled his collar down and began to playfully nip at his skin with her teeth. Lelouch felt his body shiver and he suppressed a groan at the intimate contact.

"I remember this one," the immortal woman said sultrily, gesturing to a purple blotch of skin at the base of his neck. She gave her brand a chaste, albeit moist, kiss and then returned to her grazing.

_Alright then,_ Lelouch thought. _If she wants to do this, then two can play at this game._

Lelouch allowed his hands to gently caress her bare shoulders and had them traverse down her towel-clad form agonizingly slowly. He felt her shiver underneath his touch and felt a small amount of pride form in chest at being able to return what he was receiving.

His hands came to a rest on her hips and they then gripped them tightly. He then forcibly pulled her up against him and the immortal woman let out a small squeak at the unexpected movement.

Lelouch smirked as he slowly breathed his way down from her ear to the base of her neck. Each breath made her body shudder in his hands. His teeth grazed over her skin as he made his way down at a snail's pace, causing even more tremors.

His lover moaned out, "Lelouch," and he stopped. C.C. whimpered as he ceased and begged him, "Please?"

The violet-eyed youth placed his lips on her neck and left another bruise on her that was the physical evidence of his presence in her life. C.C. moaned in pleasure as his lips left his brand on her once more.

His hands never left her body as they linked on the small of her back and his violet eyes came to meet with her golden ones. C.C.'s eyes had a slightly glazed over appearance and Lelouch couldn't help but smirk victoriously.

"Did you?" he asked her impishly.

The dazed look left her eyes and she grew a mischievous grin in response. "You should know how much it takes for me to," she said suggestively. "I may need to take another shower though…" she trailed off under her breath.

The prince chuckled at her little add-on. "Serves you right."

She flashed him a saucy grin, leaned over to his ear, and then sultrily whispered to him, "I never said I didn't like it."

Lelouch felt his cheeks tinge a bit again and C.C.'s angelic laughter echoed off his bedroom walls.

"Never change," she told him simply after she'd stopped laughing at his embarrassment.

"I wouldn't be Lelouch if I did," he cheekily shot back.

"No," his lover replied with a serene smile, "you wouldn't."

They both stared into each others' eyes for a moment before they both leaned forward and locked their lips together. The kiss was absent any lust or desire from either of them; it was a communication of their feelings for each other.

The two lovers separated their lips after a brief moment or two and stared into each others' eyes once more. Noble gold and royal violet each were brimming with the deep-rooted feelings each felt for the other from the furthest depths of their hearts.

"Thank you," Lelouch whispered.

"Any time," the green-haired woman said back playfully. She then wrapped her arms around his small frame, pulled him towards her with a hug, and rested the side of her face on his chest. A sigh filled with contentment came from his love.

"I love you C.C.."

The woman in his arms stiffened as he finally was able to give those words voice. She didn't move in the slightest – not even a twitch – for a few moments and Lelouch was beginning to grow terrified that he'd done something wrong.

But those thoughts were squashed when he heard, "Do you… Do you really mean it?" It was barely audible – hardly even a whisper –but he still managed to hear it.

Lelouch's right hand traveled up from her back and gripped her chin lightly. He turned her eyes upward to where they each were intently gazing into each others' eyes and he spoke with all of the emotions in his chest, "With all my heart. I love you C.C.."

Water began to pool in the corner of those lustrous golden orbs. "Then can I make one request before I say it to you?" she asked, barely holding back sobs.

"Anything," he assured her.

"Can you say it?" she pleaded to him. "You'll be better this time, I'm sure."

"Are you certain?"

The green hair nodded once in answer. Lelouch could see the effort it was taking his love to keep herself from breaking down in tears right that very moment.

Both of them knew how each other felt. They _knew_. You don't do as much as they've done together - live through what they did - without knowing the other as well as yourself. However, neither had ever been able to give voice to their feelings towards each other. Until today.

Lelouch searched his heart and latched himself onto all of the emotions he felt toward this woman in his arms. As he firmly grasped his feelings the time-traveling prince, revolutionary, lover, and now love nodded to her request.

And it came out, only this time it was perfect. He truly spoke with a tenderness that was unsurpassed, for it was truly treasured in his heart. It was completely honest and filled with sympathy and understanding. It came out perfectly and was full of warmth. For this was her name, and he would nevermore second-guess his feelings towards her.

"I love you, Ceceniah."

Tears openly fell from those perfectly golden eyes and began to rain downwards, onto his chest. C.C.'s smile was brimming with love as she returned with, "And I love you, Lelouch."

Her towel fell to the floor and they began to share their openly expressed love with each other. Neither of them caring about what was to come later that night.

* * *

Lelouch didn't arrive to classes until lunch, which he spent in the Student Council Room, which also just-so-happened to be where everyone had been changing into their cat costumes for Arthur's welcoming party, which he'd completely forgotten about. Suzaku had pounced – almost literally – on him and helped Milly and Rivalz to tie him to the chair while Shirley then began to apply the makeup on his face.

_Thank God C.C.'s not here,_ he thought as he squirmed in his seat against his binds,_ she'd never let me live this down._ His lover had insisted that she still be known as C.C. because her real name wasn't as easy to say.

Lelouch had to force himself away from thoughts of his love so that nobody would be able to notice him out of character.

"Damn it Suzaku!" he cried out in protest as he continued to squirm against the ropes. "Cut it out! Stop it! I'm not kidding!" As he finished the protests, Lelouch noticed the door open and someone enter the room.

"Sorry Lelouch," Suzaku apologized while still wearing his full-body blue cat suit. "President's orders."

"Yeah, like you're not enjoying this at all," the subject of the attention said rhetorically.

"Will you hold still already?" Shirley almost demanded of him. She was wearing a two piece red outfit that had pink frills along the neck and bottom of the top piece, and the frills were also along the top of her boots that completed her ensemble.

Milly then noticed the door opening and turned to see who it was. When she noticed that it was the red-head of the group, the blonde pawed at the air towards her and greeted, "Good Meowning."

Kallen still appeared a little dazed at the sight, and Lelouch didn't really blame her. He was still having a difficult time coming to grips with this the second time around.

Lelouch felt his heart clench as he truly noticed Kallen being present for the first time. But he squashed those feelings of guilt mercilessly. Unfortunately, he couldn't rise himself and get back into the mood to enjoy the party like he did last time again.

The whole party seemed to pass by in an instant to the raven-haired youth. He remembered Shirley complaining about being hounded by the press crews, leading to Milly dumbing down the _Romance of the Three Kingdoms_ quote into something that Rivalz could understand. Suzaku then began to tear up because everyone had actually made it back from the hotel-jacking alive. Lelouch wondered with a hint of amusement on why it took him over two weeks to actually express those emotions. The only other enjoyable moment came when Rivalz had asked Suzaku to do something for him and Suzaku had jumped up, given a salute to him, and said in a high-pitched voice, "Aye, sir!" Everyone started rolling in laughter, but Lelouch had no idea why.

After the party had ended, Suzaku and Lelouch had cleaned themselves and changed back into their respective Ashford uniforms, and they were alone together in the Student Council Room. Lelouch was sitting in a chair by the table, and Suzaku was going through a box of cat toys for Arthur to enjoy.

"I can't believe you teared up," Lelouch stated while he appeared to be reading a magazine about Zero. He had to stop himself after reading the first few lines in order to prevent himself from burning the article right there.

"It's called honesty," Suzaku replied. "Maybe you should try it –" He was interrupted by a bite from the cat that he had been trying to appease. Apparently Arthur preferred the Japanese chew-toy.

"All I'll say is that it's a good thing the Black Knights were there to save 'em," Lelouch said to his old friend. _Now for the _real_ part of this._

"If they wanted to catch criminals," the brown-haired youth presented his stance, "they could've joined the police force."

"Suzaku," the prince said firmly as he whirled around in his chair. "What if the police aren't up to the job?"

"The police may not be effective right now," the Japanese White Knight attempted to argue, "but they could evoke change from within."

"Tell me something Suzaku," he requested. "Do you know what happens to Elevens who try and join the police force?"

"What?" came the refused reply. "There's no mention at all that Zero's group are Elevens."

"Use that brain you claim to have." Lelouch held up his hand and extended a finger for every point he presented. "The primary targets of the Black Knights these last two weeks have been corrupt, _Britannian_ businessmen or politicians; so who'd be willing to report the people who sign their paychecks? Each person the Black Knights have gone after have abused their power to, in some way, harm the Japanese people. And three, Zero is the one who killed Clovis after Shinjuku, so it's pretty obvious who makes up Zero's ranks.

"Now for my earlier question. Do you know what happens to Elevens who join the police force?"

"They help to catch criminals." Suzaku was grasping at straws, trying to disprove the prince's words.

Lelouch couldn't hold back the snort at that. "No," he answered flatly. "They become scapegoats for the truly corrupt cops. Do you know what the retention rate is for Elevens in the police?"

Suzaku dumbly shook his head in answer.

"Zero," Lelouch told him in finality. "Absolutely zero. Now what do you have to say to convince me of how wrong I am?"

"It's wrong to force a change when not everyone wants it!" Suzaku declared. "All that creates is resentment from the losers, which leads to more conflict. All that happens is more people continue to lose their loved ones. My father –"

"Called for 'Do or Die' resistance seven years ago," the prince interrupted coolly. "And then _supposedly_ committed suicide to protest those same elements just two weeks later." Lelouch then brought his hand to his face and acted like he was contemplating something which he didn't already have the answer to. "I've always found the circumstances around Genbu's death rather curious. I never believed that he committed suicide. I'm fairly certain someone murdered your father Suzaku."

Suzaku Kururugi bolted upright and he looked at his oldest friend with wide, fear-filled eyes. "I've gotta go," he said hurriedly. "I'm probably needed back at the base." The brown-haired Japanese youth then ran from the room as if he were fleeing from the very gates of hell itself.

"Hey Suzaku," came Shirley's voice as the green-eyed pilot flew from the room without paying any attention to the orangette. She then came into the room with a confused expression on her face, but it quickly turned into a determined one as her olive eyes noticed Lelouch's presence in the room.

Lelouch's eyes softened as he thought, _I'm sorry Shirley. Not today, but soon._

"Hey, Lulu," she attempted to start. "You know… I was wondering if maybe…" Her eyes had become downcast as she continued to falter, but a fierce determination then showed in them. "Lulu," she stated with a purpose that Lelouch wasn't familiar with. "Would you like to go on a date together sometime?"

His dark eyebrows rose a small amount in astonishment. _I never thought that she'd be able to get it out._ He then leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes in concentration. He hadn't planned on Shirley finding the courage to actually ask him out. _I wonder what gave her the courage to…_

The realization dawned on him.

_Of course! What I told Suzaku back in Saitama._ Lelouch then leaned back forward in the chair and opened his eyes at his admirer. He expected her to be nervously twitching while she waited for his answer.

But it was not the same shy girl that he'd grown to know here before him on this day. Everything about the Shirley Fennette before him oozed confidence. It appeared that he'd already made a large change and he wasn't even aware of it.

"Sure," he finally answered her with a small smile. "Does next Tuesday – no, Wednesday would be better – work for you?" Lelouch couldn't find any reason to deny her. He'd grown rather fond of her in his past life, and Rolo killing her had hurt more than he had ever thought that it would. One of his many regrets was never nurturing their relationship when he could have. And if one of his theories proves correct then…

Lelouch shook himself out of his ramblings and returned to the current scene before him. He noticed that the orange-haired beauty was bouncing up and down in excited happiness.

"That works fine for me," she yipped. "Now Rivalz owes me twenty pounds. Where will we go?"

"Why am I not surprised…" he trailed off about Rivalz. "How about a trip to the mall?"

"Perfect!" she agreed. The excited girl then bounded across the room and wrapped her arms around him in a grateful hug. "Thanks Lulu," she murmured. "You won't regret this!" she swore to him. "I promise."

Nothing surprised him more than what she did next, however.

After letting him go, Lelouch could see the conflict in her eyes. She was obviously debating with herself about something, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what it could possibly be.

The determined look returned to her face as she apparently made up her mind. Shirley Fennette then leaned over to him and kissed his cheek.

She immediately recoiled back to standing up straight and had a tinge of red to her cheeks. She then stiffly walked out of the room in a daze.

Lelouch was faring no better at the moment. He was still trying to grasp the fact that Shirley – shy, timid Shirley who'd never been able to even talk to him without stuttering into an incoherent mess – had gained enough confidence to kiss him. It may have not been anything more than a little peck on the cheek, but that was already more than she'd done with him their entire past life.

His hand came up to the cheek that Shirley had kissed and he gingerly touched where her lips had met his skin. The area was slightly moist and had a gentle warmth to it.

_I still can't believe it,_ the hidden prince thought as he brought his hand back down from his face. He then vigorously ended his dazed state. _I'll think on how Shirley's change will affect things another day,_ he told himself. _Right now, I need to be someplace else._

The prince then steeled himself for the coming ordeal and left Ashford Academy. He traversed across the Tokyo Settlement and arrived at the park he wanted after about a half-hour trip.

The disgustingly familiar scene of the hot dog vendor being assaulted by the group of Britannian delinquents met his eyes. He frowned in disgust at the scene, but quickly donned a mask of impassivity as he approached the familiar crimson-haired woman.

Lelouch gripped her shoulder firmly and she whirled around in response. Sapphire met violet as their eyes and the royal could see the rage present in those beautiful blue orbs.

He shook his head to dissuade the righteous anger from making matters worse for the vendor. "There's five of them," he pointed out to her. "I'm afraid you wouldn't have a chance at all."

"So I should just ignore it?" Kallen asked him after concealing her fury behind her practiced persona.

Lelouch shook his head at her. "There's a difference between ignoring and waiting," he answered. The prince then gestured to the vendor with his head. "Take a look at that Eleven." Kallen followed his advice. "If anyone were to intervene and help him win then he'd never be able to sell anything again. He'd lose his job. He knew the risks associated with becoming a Britannian slave. It's the price he had to pay for working in the Settlement."

"Well even so –" she began before being interrupted by the vendor's assaulters.

"You got a problem over there?" one of them asked with a condescending tone to his voice. "You're not feeling sorry for this 'Eleven' are ya?"

"Nah," another one drawled on. "They feel the same way we do; don't you guys?"

"Not quite," Lelouch chuckled. The hidden royal then allowed his power out and he told them all, "But you're tired of beating up on Elevens now, aren't you?"

He saw the faint red circles and one said, "Yeah. This is boring."

The group of assaulters then left with them attempting to find something else to do. It sickened Lelouch to no end that they couldn't think of anything other than beating on Elevens to pass the time.

As they left, Lelouch disinterestedly stated, "Well they got bored pretty quick."

Lelouch noticed Kallen giving him a skeptical eye before the beautiful half-breed went over and knelt by the vendor.

"Hey," she called gently. "Are you alright?"

The Eleven vendor sat up shakily before his eyes went wide when he noticed the Ashford Academy crest on her uniform.

"A Britannian student," the vendor greeted with a forced smile that didn't reach his eyes. "What can I get for you?" he asked her. "How about a nice California hot dog miss?" Lelouch then walked over and the Eleven noticed him as well. "Is this your boyfriend? I can get him something too. I have ice cream if you like."

Lelouch simply reached out his hand to help the assaulted young man back to his feet. "Here," he offered. "I'm not her boyfriend, but we'll each take a scoop of ice cream. Vanilla, if you will."

The young man gratefully accepted the offered hand and stood up again. He then went over to his stand and began to prepare their ice cream.

Kallen had been giving Lelouch a curious look as she stood back up. She then shook her head once and called to the Eleven vendor, "Make mine a sherbert, if you don't mind."

"Which kind?" the young man prompted. "I have orange and strawberry."

Kallen grumbled something under her breath about not having her favorite, which made the corners of Lelouch's mouth twitch.

"Orange," the female student finally answered. The vendor nodded at them in acceptance and prepared their order.

The Eleven returned with a cup of ice cream for each of them. "Three pounds, sir," he said as he gave the pair their order.

Lelouch reached into his pocket and pulled out a twenty. "Keep the change," the raven haired prince told the vendor as he held out the note.

"T-Thank you," was the grateful reply.

Lelouch then turned on his heel and began to walk away from the vendor.

"Have a nice day," Kallen said to the Eleven. "And I'm sorry for what you have to go through." She then hurried along and walked with Lelouch over to a bench in the park together. As they sat down and began to enjoy their ice cream she asked Lelouch, "Why'd you do that?"

"Hmm?" he replied as his mouth closed over his spoon.

"You didn't need to give him all that money," the red-haired actress pointed out. "So why did you?"

Lelouch swallowed another spoonful of vanilla before he answered her. "Nobody should be held at fault for something that they couldn't control. It's not his fault that his parents were Japanese, and because of that he's going to be lucky just to scrape by. It should be the responsibility of those with power to help those without it, so I thought that it was just the right thing to do."

Kallen was nodding all throughout his explanation. Her face then creased in concentration while her spoon was still in her mouth, which gave the fiery red-head a rather cute look.

"Then what?" she finally asked.

"Huh?"

"What does Lelouch Lamperouge want to do about the injustice of the world?" Kallen finally began to ask the turning point.

Her prompting placed Lelouch at a precarious crossroads of how to answer. One path he knew, the other he didn't.

"He doesn't want to do anything." He chose the road less traveled.

"He?" Kallen had noticed his purposeful slip.

"Yes," the male student confirmed.

"Not _I_?"

"Come now Kallen," he smiled at her. "I do have some secrets."

Kallen appeared to desire further probing, but she eventually resigned herself to what he'd already given her and didn't ask anything else, so she began to dig into her orange sherbert.

Kallen had apparently been eating her frosted dessert a little too quickly. Lelouch noticed that as soon as her mouth enclosed over her loaded spoon, she let out a pained squeak. Her face scrunched up and her hands began to rub the side of her head gently.

Lelouch simply laughed at the absurdity of the situation.

Kallen was able to beat almost any opponent presented to her into submission rather easily. But on this day, Kallen Kozuki was defeated by brain freeze.

* * *

Kallen was staring at her Glasgow's viewscreens at the group of refrain addicts.

"Refrain," she murmured to herself distastefully.

The entire group of the Japanese present was already high on the filthy psychotropic. Each of them was rambling on about their individual pasts. Most of them were celebrating something; some were just sitting there with a dazed look and their faces slack. Kallen noticed the hot dog vendor that she and Lelouch had helped earlier that day going on about how he'd gotten accepted to finally study abroad.

The fiery Ace's sapphire eyes widened as she recognized a second form amongst the refrain addicts. The familiar maid outfit, hair, and eyes gave it away. However, it was her voice that Kallen recognized most of all.

"Come now Naoto," her mother scolded an imagined copy of the woman's son. "You really need to watch your little sister.

"Mother," Kallen barely whispered in shock. Her Glasgow's hand then caught her mother as the older woman fell. "My God mother," she continued on, "how weak are you?"

The crimson-haired Ace was jarred around in her cockpit as her Glasgow's thick, armored hide absorbed contact from behind. She turned her Knightmare and her viewscreens showed a white and blue Knightmare with its rifle aimed at her.

"The Knight Police!" Kallen exclaimed as she recognized the design. The warrior pressed her Glasgow's landspinners to the maximum possible speed and attempted to get away from the pursuing corrupt cop.

She looked down at her Knightmare's computer as she kept swerving and noticed that, once again, she was now in a Glasgow with only one arm due to the Knight Police's sneak attack from behind. Kallen looked at her Knightmare's still-attached hand and saw that it was still holding her mother, who was completely oblivious to everything going on around her.

"Damn it," the red-head cursed with water in the corners of her eyes. "I don't need you. I don't want you!" she screamed out as her Knightmare held her mother in the air.

Just then the pursuer's rifle was able to hit Kallen's Knightmare's landspinners and the red Glasgow fell to the ground. The Japanese woman that it'd been carrying flew out of its lone-remaining arm and landed in a heap out of the Knight Police's aim.

Her Knightmare shook as it was pelted with a assault rifle rounds and Kallen let out a pained cry from within her cockpit.

The sapphire eyes of the daughter came up as her Knightmare ceased shaking and she begged her mother, "What are you waiting for? Go on! Run, you idiot! Do you wanna die!?"

Kallen's mother sat up, turned towards the felled Glasgow with opened arms, and answered her daughter's plea. "I'm here for you," the woman Kallen got her eyes from told her last living child. "I'm here for you; as I always have been, and I always will be."

The Knightmare pilot noticed the approaching white enemy unit and she felt a tear fall down her left cheek. "You mean…" she realized. "You mean that's why you've endured these years. You stayed there for me. You fool!"

Kallen's instincts made her raise her Glasgow's arm to hold back the white Knightmare's descending blade.

"Or maybe," she continued to understand the truth of the years, "I'm the fool."

Her Glasgow's legs wrapped around the Knight Police's waist as she fired her Knightmare's harken and latched it onto one of the warehouse's many steel shelves. The fired harken then began to retract as it pulled the two Knightmares towards the shelves.

The enemy's cockpit block directly collided with the unforgiving, unbending steel and killed the corrupt pilot instantly.

Kallen frantically searched for the release lever to open up her Knightmare's cockpit. She found it and, forgoing all grace, clambered out of the cockpit and raced over to her mother's kneeling form.

Once to the older woman, her little girl wrapped her arms around her mother and began to cry. "Mom," Kallen sobbed into her mother's chest. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry for how I've acted these past few years. I never knew. I never knew how –"

The daughter's sobs racked her form as she pulled herself closer to her mother. She openly wailed and didn't care if anyone saw her like this. She'd finally discovered why her mother endured the abuse from everyone, even her own daughter.

Kallen stopped her bawling after a moment and realized that her mother hadn't said anything. Not even a refrain-induced ramble.

"Mom," the daughter hiccupped as she sobbed. "Mom," she called a little louder. "Mom!"

No answer. Not even a whisper.

The daughter's own sapphire eyes widened in fear. She then called as her voice cracked from all of her crying, "Ohgi!"

"Already on it," Ohgi answered her unsaid request. "The ambulance is on its way for them."

Kallen sighed in relief and then went back to just holding her mom in her arms. Even though her mother didn't move and had a dazed look on her face, Kallen refused to part from her mom. She was content, if only for a moment.

"We need to move," Zero ordered everyone. "Our presence is already known by others, and we've accomplished our mission."

"Right," Ohgi acknowledged. "Kallen –"

"I'll handle her," Zero stated simply. "I've got some experience in family trouble."

Ohgi hesitated for a moment, but eventually relented to Zero with a nod. The former schoolteacher then led the rest of the Black Knights from the warehouse.

The masked man's boots echoed against the empty building's walls as he walked across the concrete floor to where Kallen was clinging to her mother. His gloved hand came down upon her shoulder gently and he called to her softly, "Kallen."

"No," she refused stubbornly, pulling herself closer to her mom.

"Is she your mother?" her leader asked.

Kallen simply nodded as tears continued to fall.

"Do you think that she'd want you to go to prison for her sake?" Zero asked the red-head.

The half-breed's eyes widened at that, but she still didn't want to leave her mother's side.

Zero seemed to realize her inner conflict, because he told her, "Go home and change into your school uniform. The hospital won't deny you after you explain the situation to them. They may not let you meet with her until tomorrow, but they won't force you out of the hospital." A gloved hand was extended to her. "Let's go. I promise that your mother will be fine eventually, but right now she needs medical care."

Kallen debated the merits of staying with her mother and living with the consequences of being found as a Black Knight against Zero's suggestion, and the logical side of her brain finally won out.

"Alright," she nodded as she grabbed the extended hand. Zero then pulled her up with a small grunt. "Thank you Zero," Kallen showed her gratitude to the masked man with a small smile.

"I've done nothing to earn your gratitude," Zero informed her. They reached the entryway to the refrain warehouse after another minute of walking. "I must be off," he told her. The masked revolutionary then ran down the alleys and disappeared behind a corner.

A fond smile formed on Kallen's face as she watched her leader disappear once more. _You're wrong Zero,_ she thought. "You've done more than enough," the crimson-haired young woman whispered aloud.

She then turned away from the direction Zero had ran and found her way back into the Settlement. Once there, she hailed a cab and took it back to Stadtfelt Manor. The cab pulled up to the gate after an hour and Kallen paid the driver while thanking him for the ride.

She hurriedly opened the gate and rushed into the Manor house. As she entered she heard Jason calling out to her, but Kallen needed to be at the hospital for her mother. She sprinted up the stairs and into her room.

Just as she'd finished changing into her Ashford uniform and was prepared to go be with her mom, Kallen heard her bedroom door open.

"What is it?" Kallen demanded harshly. "I need to get to the hospital."

"I'm deeply sorry Miss," Jason bowed to her. "But the Master wishes to speak with you urgently. He told me to drag you if I needed."

_Does dad already know?_ the red-head wondered. _He might, but it's not likely the hospital has done much research on mom yet._ "Fine," she sighed as she relented. "Lead on," she gestured to Jason.

Jason gave her a small bow and then led her over to her father's study.

"Line one Miss," Jason informed her. "Ring if you need anything.

"Yeah, yeah," the pilot dismissed sternly. Jason left and shut the door behind him.

Kallen walked across the room and sat down in the chair at the desk. She didn't intend on talking with him for long. Patrick's absence in their lives could also have been a contributing factor in what happened to her mom, and she doubted she'd be able to forgive him for it. She grabbed the phone, pressed the 'Answer' key, and pressed the phone to her ear.

"What is it dad?" she said stiffly.

"Listen Kallen," her dad began hurriedly. "I don't have long. The hospital just called and I know about your mother. Let me finish!" he roared as she began to cut in. "To be honest, I'd suspected that this would happen sooner or later without me there. I put in some safeguards just in case; that's how I already know."

"If you knew this was going to happen," Kallen bit at him, "then why didn't you try and stop it?"

"I didn't _know_ it was happening," Patrick answered her. "All I could do was prepare for _if_ it happened."

"Can we keep this short?" she asked her father curtly. "Mom's in the hospital and _someone_ needs to be there to support her."

Her father let out a deep sigh on the other end of the call. "I called so you could see something for yourself. Do you know what I keep in my safe?"

"Your personal one here in the study?" she replied. "Important things I would guess."

"More than you know," he told her. "I'm allowing you to look in the safe yourself just this once. There's something that I want you to see in there. The passcode's your birthday."

"Anything else?"

"Just know that I won't be able to call or come to Area Eleven any time soon," Patrick answered his daughter. "Something big has happened here in Pendragon, and you'll probably see it on the news soon enough. "I've got to go. Bye, Kallen. I love you."

"Bye dad." She then slammed the phone down on the receiver as she allowed her anger to get out.

She stood up in a huff and stomped over to the painting of her father and swung it open to reveal the hidden safe. Kallen entered her birthday into the display screen and impatiently waited as it confirmed the code. The display went green and had a 'One-time only acceptance' sign appear as the metal door swung open.

Kallen openly snorted as she took in the safe's contents. There were some documents, as she'd expected there to be. A few stacks of green bills were in it as well. However, a brief flash of gold caught her attention.

She reached into the safe and grabbed what had attracted her attention. It was a wedding ring; one of the two that her father possessed from his two marriages.

Kallen placed the ring between her thumb and forefinger and brought it closer to her face so that she could discern which one it was. She gasped as she recognized the outer markings of "PS & EL."

This was the wedding ring from his arranged marriage.

_But dad's always wearing his wedding ring,_ the red-head silently mused. _If he's not wearing this one, then that means…_ Kallen's eyes widened in astonishment of what this truly meant.

Kallen placed the ring back into the safe and then closed it. The 'Locked' screen reappeared and the painting swung itself back and covered the safe that's contents had just made Kallen reel in shock.

Kallen lay down on the floor, pulled her legs to her chest, and began to openly weep in shame.

Her parents truly loved each other.

* * *

She'd been sitting in the hospital's waiting room for over an hour before the doctor assigned to her mother found her.

"Are you Ms. Stadtfelt?" the middle-aged woman asked as she approached.

Kallen nodded to her and said, "I am. Is Ms. Kozuki able to accept visitors yet?"

The brown-haired woman nodded in response. "She is. And your mother will make a full recovery."

Her sapphire eyes widened in shock. "How'd you –"

"It's written all over your face dear," the doctor waved her concerns off. "And you can relax. I'm a half-breed as well, so your secret's safe here. It's also officially covered under doctor-patient confidentiality."

Kallen let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding. She then said to the doctor, "Thanks. Can I see her now?"

"You may." The doctor then gestured for the red-haired half-breed to follow her. "I'll take you to her and answer any questions you may have."

Kallen thanked the older woman once more, stood up from the chair, and followed the doctor as she led. They walked down two hallways and arrived at Ms. Kozuki's room after another few minutes of traveling.

Kallen was smiling from one of the doctor's jokes as she entered her mother's room, but the youth's mood turned somber as she saw her mother.

Ms. Kozuki was sitting upright in her bed with her hands folded in front of her. She was dressed in a green hospital gown and the bedsheets covered her legs.

The daughter silently walked over and sat down in the chair next to the bed. Kallen stared at her mother for a minute before she asked the doctor, "Why is she so quiet?"

"It's a side-effect of refrain," the doctor relayed gently. "She's unable to talk much for now. It will wear off eventually, but not for some time."

Kallen nodded in response before she began to tell her mother about what had occurred over the last day. "Mother," she began gently. "You were sentenced to twenty years."

She'd received a call from Jason as she arrived at the hospital earlier. Her uncle-figure had informed the child that the courts had decided on a sentence after barely fifteen hours had passed since the refrain warehouse had been raided by the police.

"But just you wait," Kallen choked out as she fought to contain her sobs. "I'm working to change things. I'll make a world where we can live a normal life again. So please? Mother… Don't give up!"

The red-haired youth felt a touch on her hand and she looked down to see what it was. She let out a small gasp as she noticed that her mother had reached out to her and gave her daughter's hands a comforting squeeze.

"Hang in there," her mother spoke out for the first time in over thirty hours. Kallen's eyes began to tear as her mom continued, "Hang in there Kallen. My little girl."

Kallen grabbed her mom's hand and pressed it to her cheek as warm streaks trailed down her chin.

"Don't you worry," the daughter tried to comfort her mother, "I will."

"Hey there, Doctor Sharron."

Kallen started as she recognized a familiar voice coming from behind her.

_No,_ she both begged and realized. _Please tell me I'm just imagining him being here. _Her head creaked around slowly and she saw her fears realized.

Lelouch Lamperouge – dressed in his student's uniform – tuned into the room and said, "I needed to talk to you about Nunnally's…" he trailed off as he noticed the other occupants of the room.

"Come with me," the doctor quickly said to him. "I've got your sister's medication ready. We just need to step into my office to get it."

Lelouch nodded at the doctor and then his violet eyes met with Kallen's sapphire pair. The Knightmare Ace's eyes narrowed in anger at him and she noticed a brief flicker of some emotion across his eyes. Guilt? But it was gone so quickly that Kallen wasn't able to confirm if it was really there or if she'd imagined it.

The dark-haired boy then followed the doctor out of the room, but he gave Kallen one last backwards glace before leaving.

Kallen stiffly stood up and said to her mom, "I'll be right back Mom. I just need to go deal with something real quick."

No answer came from her mother, and then the daughter made her way out of the hospital as she prepared herself for the upcoming confrontation. She found her way to the hospital's entry doors and they slid open for her. She stepped out into the cool autumn air. The Ace then walked over to one of the entryway's pillars and leaned her back against it as she crossed her arms over her chest. All she needed to do now was simply wait.

Kallen's mind raced. _This is bad,_ she figured. _It's bad enough that Milly already knows, but now even Lelouch knows. This is probably my biggest secret – aside from following Zero – and there's no guarantee that this won't become big news. I have to ensure that nobody else finds out. I'll do anything to make sure this never sees the light of day._

She heard the doors hiss open and saw the black-clad male student she'd been thinking of making his exit from the hospital. He wasn't carrying anything, so whatever he'd come to get must not have been very large.

As the raven-haired boy walked past the pillar she'd been leaning against she started with, "Nice to see you Lulu."

The boy froze stiff and slowly turned to face her. "Kallen. I –" he began before she interrupted.

"No," she emphasized. "You'll listen. I'm a half-breed, and you now know. This is the biggest secret in the entire Stadtfelt family. Only myself, my father, my step-mother, my mother, and a few select servants know about it. If this secret got out it would ruin my father's family. I need more than your word that this secret won't be spread like wildfire, and I don't take kindly to blackmail."

"I'd never –"

"Stow it," she glared. "Words are fleeting Lelouch. If my father's taught me anything, it's not to simply trust another person's word alone. If you want to keep on living with Nunnally, then you'll give me something as well. I know you have your secrets; you alluded to as much yesterday. Now I'm demanding equal leverage over you to ensure your silence."

Lelouch appeared to be in deep contemplation as Kallen finished presenting her demands. She'd put him in a position that she'd never desired to put anyone ever in, but Kallen needed this leverage. She had a few suspicions about him as well, and this was her best chance to get some answers to her theories.

"Very well," the violet-eyed youth whispered. "Since I know the secret of your real parents, I'll tell you mine. What do you remember about what I told you of my parents?"

Kallen thought back to his tale about a month-and-a-half ago and recalled a few details. "The details were sketchy, but you alluded to them being Sakuradite businessmen."

"That was a lie," he revealed slowly.

"I figured as much," the Ace snorted in response. "I didn't think that mere businessmen could have a child as intelligent as you are. Let me take a guess. You and Nunnally are the illegitimate children of some noble, and he disowned you both when Nunnally was born."

"No," was the whispered answer. "My sister wasn't born blind and crippled, but we were cast off by our _father."_ He spat out 'father' as if it were a curse worse than the Black Death. "My sister's blindness was caused from her witnessing our mother's murder. She was crippled in the same way."

_This sounds like something familiar,_ Kallen mused. "Then who were your parents Lelouch?" she demanded.

"My mother," Lelouch revealed dramatically, "was Marianne vi Britannia: Fifth Imperial Consort to Charles zi Britannia."

Kallen gasped as she realized just what she'd heard. "You mean that…"

"Yes," the former prince confirmed. "Not many know this, but Charles called off the investigation into Marianne's murder. I stormed into the throne room the next day and demanded the Emperor that justice be done. In response; he cast me out. He sent Nunnally, who'd been crippled and blinded, and me to Japan as _bargaining tools_. Then three months later invaded, not caring if we either lived or died."

Kallen was in shock at hearing such news. Her father had been in the throne room when Prince Lelouch had demanded justice, just as Lelouch had described. Patrick's account of those events over seven years ago matched Lelouch's perfectly.

Every Britannian across the globe knew the tale of Marianne vi Britannia. She had been born a lowly commoner, but joined the military and her campaign of proving herself through sheer skill alone. She'd been admitted into the initial Knightmare Corps and achieved Knighthood; the first commoner to ever achieve Noble status through the military. She was then admitted into the Knights of the Round and made her way all the way up to the Knight of Two. Emperor Charles then married her before she became the Knight of One and Marianne became the first commoner _ever_ to become royalty. She gave birth to two children: seventeenth-in-line Lelouch and eighty-seventh-in-line Nunnally vi Britannia. The Commoner Queen's reign came to an unsightly end as she was supposedly assassinated by terrorists.

However, what most people don't know unless they were a part of the Imperial Court at the time of the Empress' assassination – like Patrick Stadtfelt was – is that she had been killed in the Imperial Palace. The security of the Palace is still absolute, so no one outside of the Imperial Court or Royal Family could enter. So that meant that only a member of those two groups could've killed the Empress.

As she remembered the tale her father had told her seven years ago, Kallen realized something. The young man before her was Lelouch vi Britannia. His sister had been both blinded and crippled while his mother – who'd been adored by all outside the Royal Family or Imperial Court – had been murdered. He must have a burning desire for vengeance towards the Royal Family. A festering hatred.

This is what she'd been trying to search for. Motive for Lelouch Lamperouge – no, vi Britannia – against Britannia as a whole.

Kallen smirked victoriously as she was finally able to find the missing piece to the puzzle.

"So," she began slowly. "You _are_ Zero then, aren't you?"

Lelouch's violet eyes widened a fraction, but Kallen's sharp eyes noticed it.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," he attempted to casually deny.

But the Knightmare Ace wasn't going to let him off that easy. "Save it," she ordered fiercely. "The only thing that points away from the two of you not being one-and-the-same is that phone conversation I had in the bathroom." Kallen fought down the blush that attempted to worm its way to her face as she recalled that moment. "But that's easily explained through the 'power' that Zero demonstrated to me and Ohgi the night we saved Suzaku.

"You're Zero," Kallen said in finality. "The two of you have the _exact_ same voice. The only thing I could never find to link you and Zero together was a motive for you to go after Britannia, and now I have it."

Lelouch simply stared at her for a moment, and Kallen was expecting another denial or attempt to rebuff her conclusion. However, the former prince simply started laughing.

Her eye twitched in annoyance at being laughed at. "What's so funny _your highness_?" she asked him mockingly.

Lelouch immediately sobered up at that. "Don't you dare refer to me like that again," he menacingly hissed at her. "I'm not a prince any longer, and if anyone were to report that Nunnally and I were alive, then we'd both become pawns in _that man's_ game again. I will never allow that.

"Now the reason I was laughing is because I have apparently severely underestimated you Kallen," he told her. "I figured that you'd eventually piece it together, but that it would take you a few weeks at least. It turns out I was wrong again. Now I owe C.C. a massage," he grumbled as he finished.

The green-haired woman from Saitama had completely slipped from Kallen's mind. "You mean that woman who'd been dressed as Zero back in Saitama?" Lelouch simply nodded in response. "Just who is she?"

The prince chuckled at her. "I'm afraid you've figured out enough for now. In one night you've become privy to two of my biggest secrets. You will find out about her soon enough, but I am tired. Goodnight Kallen," he said in finality. The former prince then turned on his heel and departed.

* * *

Kallen returned back to Stadtfelt Manor after visiting her mother for the third straight day. They never did much while she was at the hospital; Kallen sat there and had one-sided conversations with her mother for hours while the older woman usually dazed into space with a blank look on her face. It hurt the half-breed more than she'd ever admit when she saw her mother like that. Her heart clenched in pain at the thought that she'd played a part in what had happened to her mother.

As she entered the entryway, Jason met her with a bow. Kallen requested some tea in her room. Jason accepted the request and went off to prepare the tea for her. The red-head tiredly trudged up the stairs into her bedroom.

She fell down into one of the chairs around the table in her room and began to think about everything that had happened this past week as she gazed out of her bedroom's wall-window.

Her mother had been revealed to be a refrain addict, hospitalized and diagnosed with Refrain Silence, and then sentenced by the courts to twenty years of prison for refrain usage. The fact that Kallen likely was one of the causes for this didn't help the girl sleep at night. Luckily, thanks to her father's preparations, her mom was going to be spending those twenty years in a small prison. Kallen had visited the place yesterday; it was more of a drug-rehab center than anything, so that was something to be grateful for.

Then there was what Lelouch had told her and his subsequent admittance of being Zero after she'd figured it out. The red-head hadn't gone to school these past few days and the two of them hadn't crossed paths since then, so they hadn't been able to discuss on that matter any further. She'd also decided against telling anyone in the Black Knights about who Zero really was. That would just cause dissention amongst the ranks. Tamaki would probably blow a fuse at finding out that Zero was once a Britannian Prince.

Kallen cursed Lelouch under her breath. She didn't know if the lazy persona he wore at school was who he really was, or if Zero was his true personality. The half-breed was willing to admit to herself – but never to anyone else – that she'd began to fall for the mask. This left a bitter taste in her mouth now that she knew who was behind that reflective glass, because she didn't know if she should act on her feelings or not now. She needed to figure out who Zero – no Lelouch, she corrected herself – truly was.

A knock on her bedroom door roused her from her thoughts. She called for whoever it was to enter and Jason walked in while carrying a tray that had a teapot and a single cup on it.

"Thanks Jason," she told her favorite member of the household staff as he walked in with the tea she'd asked for earlier.

"It's no problem Miss," Jason said to her. He then walked across the room and set the tray he'd been carrying down on the table Kallen was sitting at. "Are you feeling well Kallen?" he finally asked her.

Kallen whirled her head away from the window at his question. Jason only ever used her name when addressing her whenever it hurt _him_ to see her in pain. The red-head could see the concern present in his green eyes.

Kallen let out a slow sigh. "To be honest," she told him. "No. I'm not alright."

She then stood up from the wooden chair she'd been sitting in and walked over to the large, brown dresser. This was the dresser she'd placed all of the photos she wanted to be seen on display for anyone that came into her room for a visit. She'd just put one more photograph yesterday in a frame she'd personally made back when she was still in Primary School almost eleven years ago.

It was a messy, not-very-well-put-together mess of a frame. The wood that the frame was made of had been finger-painted red with blue splotches dotting all along the frame unevenly. The paint had begun to chip in places since the frame had been placed in storage for the better part of a decade. Across the top of the picture frame was a single word made with used Popsicle sticks. That one word was a small, simple, 'Mom.'

The picture that was present within the frame was a snapshot from back before Area Eleven was created. It was back when Kallen, Naoto, her father, and her mother were all living together happily. In the background of the photo were Naoto and Kallen wrestling together, with their father looming over them with that solid oaken paddle he'd loved using on the two of them. It looked as though he'd just got back from work seeing as how Patrick Stadtfelt had still been dressed in his black business suit.

In the foreground of the picture, taking up well over half of the picture – which Kallen didn't mind in the least – was her mother. The elder Kozuki woman looked absolutely radiant in the still-shot. She'd been wearing a specially-designed-for-her traditional kimono that Kallen's father had commissioned as a wedding gift to his first wife, the one whom he'd loved. It was a very vibrant, bright yellow with a blue eastern-dragon that seemed to coil itself around her legs and arms with its head appearing to rest underneath her left breast. The red, yellow, and orange sash around her mother's waist made it seem as though the dragon was breathing flames onto the kimono itself.

But what made Kallen choose this picture, instead of one of the other millions of snapshots of her mother, was the smile that was on her mom's face. The only way Kallen could think of to describe it was a "Mother's Smile." In that smile, her daughter was able to notice her mother for whom she really was. That smile contained everything that a mother could feel for their child. Kallen saw the love that her mother felt for both her and her brother in that smile. She saw the desire to protect her children, at any personal cost. She saw the need to always be near them, even if they didn't want you to be. It was truly a mother's smile. _Her_ mother's smile.

_And I was too stupid to ever notice it,_ Kallen thought as she felt a small smile grace her face.

"Miss," Jason called to her.

"Yes, Jason," she answered without turning from observing the portrait.

"Are you expecting company?"

Kallen turned away from the shame and guilt she felt every time she looked at that picture at his question. "No, I'm not," she told the middle-aged man.

"Well, someone is arriving in one of the Master's personal transports," he informed her as he looked out of her bedroom window.

_Dad didn't tell me anything,_ the red-head thought as she walked over to Jason's side and joined him in peering out of the window to observe their unannounced visitor.

Jason had been right. The vehicle that had just stopped in front of the Stadtfelt Manor's main entrance doorway was, indeed, her father's private limo that he kept at the airport while he was away. However, Patrick Stadtfelt had told his daughter the other day that he'd not be able to return to Area Eleven for some time – which meant at least another year.

_Who could it be?_ Kallen silently wondered as she saw her father's private chauffer step out and walk to the rear-passenger door. _He only drives under dad's direct orders,_ she thought, referring to the elderly gentleman who drove her father's private limo.

The elderly chauffer opened the door for whomever he'd been escorting and Kallen witnessed a long, dark ponytail exit the limo. She felt her heart flutter as she recognized that hairstyle.

"Jason," she said to him as she turned around from the window and began to walk out of her room. "Bring another cup for tea to my room. I'm going to greet our new guest myself."

Jason slightly bowed to her and then took his leave after saying, "Very well, Miss."

Kallen walked down the stairs in the main foyer of her father's estate with her mind racing faster than ever.

_Why is she here?_ Kallen wondered as she took another step down. _Did she hear about mom and insist on visiting since dad couldn't?_

Kallen was brought back from her ponderings as she reached the large, oaken doors of Stadtfelt Manor.

_I can ask her about it later,_ she reminded herself. As she was reaching to open the doors she thought, _Right now I need to greet her and be a good host. I thank every God possible that the bitch is out trying to schmooze right now._

Kallen pulled the doors open and her eyes met the long, midnight-black ponytail and azure eyes that she'd always associated with her oldest Britannian friend, Liliana Wallace.

"It's good to see you again Lily," Kallen greeted her old friend with a warm smile on her face.

"You as well," Liliana returned. "You know, it's been nearly five years since we've seen each other, but you're still as gorgeous as ever Kallen."

The red-head blushed slightly at her friend's words. She quickly reigned in her slight embarrassment and pride in herself she felt at the moment, however. "So what brings you all the way to Area Eleven?" Kallen asked of her very beautiful friend.

She immediately regretted asking Lily that.

Kallen witnessed water beginning to gather and pool at the corners of those stunning sky-blue eyes as Liliana told her, "We're going to be real sisters Kallen."

"What do you mean?"

Tears began to freely fall down from Lily's eyes and stained her pretty face as the salty water streamed down. Kallen instinctively knew that it was taking all of her friend's considerable amount of willpower to keep herself from breaking down right there.

"Kallen," her dark-haired friend began to tell her with streaks continuously falling from her eyes. "Dad's dead."

Kallen's sapphire eyes widened in shock as she realized the gravity of what she'd just been told.

Liliana's father was dead. Sir William Wallace, her father's oldest friend and the Knight of Five, was dead.

**End Knights and Princesses**

* * *

**A/N:** Aaaaaaaaand cut!

That's all for Part 3 folks. It's over and done with. Quite a few things happened in this chapter, and I'll - hopefully - be able to answer questions before they're asked.

The biggest one, I'm guessing, would be why I chose "Ceceniah" for C.C.'s name. I literally spent _hours_ on my computer before I started this story trying to find a plausible theory on her name. I threw out the whole "Cera" theory because it didn't match up with the lip movements of Lelouch when he said it while they were both in the cave after Narita. That was when it hit me; use the lips. Use what has been provided by canon to find her name. I then started focusing on lip movement theories and the one that matched the lip movements the best had been Ceceniah. The theory was well-thought-out and used elements from canon to prove itself. When I went back and re-watched CG in preparation for the story, I carefully watched Lelouch's lips that scene and - sure enough- the lips perfectly matched with the name in the theory. So there.

Now, do I need to go find a shelter to cower in because I'm going to be taking a break now? I gave you a warning, but I didn't adequately tell you all about what was going to be revealed. Just remember this: If you kill me in retribution, I won't be able to continue the story and give you the answers you seek.

Liliana Wallace has been introduced, and I'm not saying anything else about her. She's Kallen's oldest living Britannian friend, and was the daughter of the Knight of Five, Sir William Wallace. Sir Wallace is the same William who had a brief dialogue back when Kallen and Patrick had their little talk, back at the start of Knights and Princesses. It makes plenty of sense that her father's oldest friend would be her Godfather, doesn't it? Her past and everything about her will be revealed in time, just a little patience is requested. In case you haven't figured it out yet, she's not going to just disappear now that she's in the story.

Kallen has now figured out Lelouch is actually Zero. How will this affect the story? You'll find out eventually. There are hundreds of possibilities, but I'm not saying.

_This_ is where my story will truly begin. Now the changes begin to take effect. With Narita, Kyoto, Mao, and everything going on in-between, quite a bit will be occurring in Guren and Geass.

I hope you all haven't forgotten the 'gift' Lelouch got from God at the beginning of the story, because the next part will start explaining it more thoroughly. You'll see how his power matches up with Mao's, and that's going to be a fun bout to write out. More of his new power's aspects will be demonstrated and revealed as well, and each are going to be big events.

Now then, flaming discontent aside from forcing you all to wait, how was the chapter? Did I do good? Did I send you all off on an acceptable note? I really want to know your thoughts on the chapter, and the whole story as well. Is it good enough? Do you love it? Do you despise it? I don't really mind which way you feel, just give me your thoughts without flaming. Flames are so annoying to deal with that it takes away any aspirations towards the story.

I hope you're all prepared for the roller coaster of this plot to truly start. Because I can't wait to get back to it and continue blowing even my own mind with what I'm doing. I'm aiming for you Cal reflector! Allora Gale! Kyugan! dripley11's on the prowl, and he wants to be the very pinnacle!


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